Robbo’s downfall

THERE is no doubt British Leyland in the 1970s represented everything that was wrong with industry in this country.

It became synonymous with wildcat walkouts, union militancy and industrial chaos. The cars were pretty ropey, too.

And, to that extent, Robinson assisted Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power.

The countdown to Leyland’s and Robinson’s fall is chronicled in Gillian Bardsley and Colin Corke’s history of the famous Birmingham car factory, “Making Cars at Longbridge”...

“When BL ran out of credit, Harold Wilson’s Labour Government assumed control by taking a majority shareholding in 1975. Michael Edwardes was recruited as BL’s new chairman in 1977.

“He took a hard line with the Government and a rebellious workforce, finally breaking the cycle of industrial unrest and the drought of fresh designs. The Austin Metro was launched in October 1980, significant not just as the first new model to come out of Longbridge for seven years, but also for the modern robot technology which had been installed to produce it.

“The company changed its name to Rover Group in 1986, officially banishing the last vestiges of British Leyland, though it would prove more difficult than this to wipe these words from the British consciousness.”