The special relationship that wasn’t that special

Having read Mr Cooper’s column, I think in his summing up he misses out just how the Japanese got such a jump on the British motorcycle industry. Perhaps management/workforce relations would have been better if wages were not so pitiful, but I think he may be confusing the travails of Longbridge with that of Meriden or Hall Green. What isn’t debatable is that American post-Hiroshima guilt dollars were poured into Japan in an effort to rebuild the country’s economy, whereas the British Treasury had been bankrupted by the war. Indeed, our ‘special relationship’ with the US ensured the repayment of $7.5bn continued until 2006!

The idea of poor Soichiro Honda working up to become the world’s largest producer of motorcycles from humble garden shed beginnings without those ‘conscience dollars’ is, I think, a myth.

STG Schofield