BREAKING NEWS!
And this really is.
MG Rover has called in the receivers.
I grew up next to the Rover factory. Our neighbours worked there, our neighbourhood relied - relies on it for its livelihood. Because of the Rover plant thousands of homes - nice homes - have been built over the past hundred years. MG Rover was the lifeblood of the community for miles around.
And now, as of 10pm, ten minutes ago, it's gone.
So here's a retrospective:
Herbert Austin, founder of the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge in 1905.
A history of the plant.
And an article on the prospects of the 50,000 people whose lives just became a shitload less certain.
I need a 12,000 job to break even this year. The prospects of me finding one just got nigh on impossible. If things get too bad, and believe me, they might very easily, we're going to have to move away - and that's not a prospect I relish.
* * *
Edit: I backdated this post to when I actually wrote it, even though I actually posted it on Saturday morning. Blogger's been messing me about so I posted it to my livejournal first.