Autocar:Van maker LDV has failed to secure an emergency loan from the UK government.
Has it? Keeping one's job on the gravy train trumps govt. officials' recommendations. From the local rag, the B'ham Post, today:
'The fate of LDV lies in the hands of Black Country MP Ian Pearson (Lab, Dudley South), after Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, ruled himself out of any decision about whether to provide Government aid.
Mr Pearson is to meet senior managers from the firm in Whitehall. LDV’s chief executive Erik Eberhardsen is expected to attend.
The talks have been arranged by Liam Byrne MP, the senior minister whose Hodge Hill constituency includes the van maker’s plant in Washwood Heath, where 850 workers are employed.'
- looks like slaphead Byrne's just woken up to the fact that his chances of keeping his seat at the next election have just completely disappeared even in a poor, ethnically diverse area like B'ham Hodge Hill. This has much, much further to go. Remember Labour promised the aircraft carrier order to the Rosyth dockyard just before the Glasgow East by-election; the order which has subsequently been suspended.
