Times Online readers’ comments:
My dad works at the Jaguar plant in Liverpool but he is still on the Coventry plant’s pay roll. He is the main source of income for my family but he isn’t sure where he is contracted to, and is now going to work not knowing if he will have a job by the end of the week. The workers who are prepared to go on strike have my full support. It is a shame to see a famous factory close and even more of a shame to see all those men unemployed. Matthew Waller, Stoke on Trent
Ford has been hell bent of closing down the British car industry for years. Shipping the plants, machinery and production to the States to keep Americans in work was implicitly agreed back in 1989. William Hill, Cambridgeshire
Jaguar F1 is being sold. Renault racing is going to France. Other Formula One teams are on the verge of closing. The 500,000 jobs in the performance car industry are under threat. Rover is nearly dead as a medium-volume manufacturer. At the next election, new Labour will live to regret its belief that service industries are the future. Without manufacturing, tax returns and employment are volatile. Alexander Davidson, Shipson-on-Stour
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How can we take Geoffrey Robinson’s view of the car industry seriously? He was the head of Jaguar when it was part of British Leyland. This period saw the beginning of the decline in the British car industry. I agree with the unions - accountability for poor performance should be held across the board. But we need to take a lesson from British Leyland - which became Rover Group, a company that has lost money and has shrunk. Our car industry has to become more profitable. Handouts are not the answer as they only prolong the agony and promote death. Andrew Tagg, Burton Upon Trent
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