That's the visual equivalent to white noise :D
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Ok let's get this straight,British Government wont fund British Steel industry but invested £3.8 billion in the Swedish steel industry,and invest millions into a Japanese car Manufacturer that according to you is doing Spiffingly well.No very Patriotic this British Government that you keep breast beating about.B.T.W you keep bangin' on about what's best for your family etc.Are they Japanese or Swedish by any chance?:?
Really?
by vague assurances
In any case, all the cards were in his hands. The Government was desperate to win this investment as a symbol of international confidence in post-Brexit Britain. Just think what the message would have been had Nissan decided instead to invest in France.
Yet in agreeing to Mr Ghosn’s demands, the Government has got itself into a terrible hole. If it is to compensate Nissan for tariffs, then it would have to do so for the rest of the motor industry, and if the motor industry is to be compensated, then logically almost anyone facing tariffs in exporting to Europe would have to get the same treatment.
Let’s leave aside the considerable complexities of such arrangements, the only feasible way of paying for it would be to impose countervailing tariffs. This in turn would trigger a trade war with Europe, for in essence, importers would be made to pay the costs of subsidising British industry.
Inside the Nissan plant in Sunderland Credit: OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images
All of which makes whatever promises were made to Nissan a huge gamble on eventually ending up with tariff-free trade. And while any rational organisation would immediately agree such an outcome, with Brexit we are looking at a possibly quite messy divorce. There is no guarantee the EU will behave rationally.
It’s good that Nissan has decided to invest further, but at what cost? It’s also good that the Government is leaning over backwards to support our foreign-owned motor industry. But despite its totemic status, it’s worth recalling that the entire automotive sector amounts to less than 1pc of the UK economy. And in favouring one sector, governments almost invariably end up disadvantaging others. As ministers are about to find out, industrial intervention isn’t the panacea they imagine.