Gordon Brown facing up to Jaguar Land Rover
I thought Editor's Chair watchers might be interested to watch news-making at work.
The growing Jaguar Land Rover petition made enough waves to Number 10 on the for the PM's spin doctors to arrange an interview this morning.
Once a pic for the front page with yours truly had been taken, I then whipped out the N95 to show our wider team at work.
Seen shorthanding to the right of GB is Jon Walker, the Political Editor for the Mail and Post. To the right again is Marc Reeves, Post editor, and on the far right is handsome Video Editor Phil Vinter. The back of photographer Trevor Roberts can also be spotted in the foreground.
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Steve Dyson - Blog from the Editor on recent issues and events.
It was rather amusing to see a bemused Mr Brown stood behind Mr D, wearing his 'comedy' serious face in today's Mail.
Mr Brown is on a three day tour of the country, visiting the regions and saying 'There there, everything will be alright', while the economy continues to fall apart around him. Reading the Mail anyone would think he's here specifically because of the JLR campaign? He's not...
JLR bosses were making appeals to the Government long before the Mail decided to jump on it.
Report the news. Don't try to be the news.
I don’t agree… yes, we’re making the story OURS because there’s something to say and something to challenge the PM with.
What would have been lazy or 'jumping on it', as you say, would have been allowing Downing Street PR spin doctors to get the ‘all is OK’ message they would have preferred from his tour. Our coverage was the opposite.
As well as our p1 write-off today, read p4-5 properly and the leader comment, absorb the specially commissioned Whittock cartoon. Our coverage was to challenge the PM, not placate or accommodate.
Yes, the PM tried to give platitudes and say ‘we want to help Jaguar Land Rover’. But instead of being flannelled, we made sure readers knew this was not good enough.
Did we therefore use his tour to our own ends to highlight our own campaign? Too right we did.
Forgive me as I'm not too well versed in JLR's current financial plight but I want to ask a few questions that have arisen to an ordinary bloke off the street like me:
1)I have read that JLR made a profit of more than £350 million last year. In your last blog JLR bosses had been saying for months that trouble lay ahead. So, didn't they make any provisions themselves to deal with the current crisis that they could see was on the horizon?
2)Much is made of how they want a loan and not a "bail out". But how can they guarantee that they will definitely pay back any loan (plus interest) within a short time frame? The current financial climate is that unpredictable that it could get much worse, so what makes them sure they will pay back the loan so quickly?
3)If JLR had been flagging up their problems "months ago", why didn't the Mail start a campaign to help them back then?
4)On your own site, Gordon Brown is quoted as saying the Government have been in talks about a possible loan with JLR since December. Well, doesn't that make your campaign pointless?
5)Is the lesson from all this that big firms should go looking for Government loans early on in their financial troubles and not, like Woolies or Adams for example, leave it too late?
6)Where does the Government draw the line with who it helps out or doesn't help out?
7)Did the Post and Mail not forsee any financial problems last year before you got to the stage where you had to ask dozens of members of staff to voluntarily leave the company? Could the company not have asked for a loan early on to ease the worry?
Blimey! This is a blog not a book! But some good questions, Michael. I know not every angle of answer, but here are my views. (Excuse the length, but you asked…)
1) You mention JLR made a profit of c.£350 million… but note this was in the first half of 2008 before the credit crunch bit. You ask why they ‘didn't make any provisions themselves to deal with the current crisis’. If you read more depth you’ll see they did and have. Provisions, if you can call them that, included VRs for 600 and laying off 840 agency workers. They have pumped several hundred million into the firm and suppliers to keep things going, most recently £40 million in late December to ‘see things through’ til the end of January.
2) You ask ‘how can they guarantee that they will definitely pay back any loan’? I guess such loans would be guaranteed on the business, properties, etc.
3) You ask ‘why didn't the Mail start a campaign to help them’ months ago? The desperate nature of the situation has obviously become more visible in the last few weeks. The campaign has been in planning since late Dec.
4) You ask that if the Government has been in talks about a possible loan with JLR since December, isn’t our campaign pointless? No, because nothing has happened yet. The experts are increasingly worried that it is taking too long, and that prevarication will result in too much damage. The government needs to act now, not talk about possibly acting.
5) You ask ‘Is the lesson from all this that big firms should go looking for Government loans early on in their financial troubles and not, like Woolies or Adams for example, leave it too late?’ I guess so, if they can show they are a viable company but for the credit crunch. What? Well, the in-depth analysis is that the likes of Woolies were on the edge anyway… perhaps an out-of-date business? The credit crunch tipped the balance. Whereas Jaguar Land Rover was doing very well… but the credit crunch has flattened the market for them. The experts say they are viable and should be successful going forward, but need assistance through that period.
6) You ask ‘Where does the Government draw the line’? Good question. They’ve bailed the banks out. I think they should grant the £1 billion loan to JLR. If you read around, you’ll see they are trying to get banks to loan money, and that they are set to guarantee 80% of such loans to small businesses. I would imagine it’s all based on the above… which firms to analysts feel are in a good state but for the credit crunch? There’s no point in saving those that were on the way out anyway, but there is sense in assisting good businesses that will thrive in two years time.
7) You (mischievously!) ask ‘Did the Post and Mail not foresee any financial problems last year before you got to the stage where you had to ask dozens of members of staff to voluntarily leave the company?’ Er, yes, I think Trinity Mirror did… and that’s why they’ve launched several projects to reduce costs… including ours. The VRs (harsh but necessary) across the group mean that the company is coping with what would have been financial problems going forward. You then ask ‘Could the company not have asked for a loan early on to ease the worry?’ No, of course not. No company can ask for Govt loans if it is within their own powers to reduce/manage costs and still make profit.
Hope that helps.
Hi Steve,
Sorry for the length of the blog but thanks for the detailed response - it certainly helps.
I was being a bit naughty with my last question but I am genuinely interested and wondered whether the company could have (or could in the future) gotten a similar type of loan. I guess the Post and Mail was in a completely different situation to JLR anyway...
Generally speaking though I'd like to see as much help given to all firms from all sectors in the coming months. I know JLR is huge and its demise would be catastrophic - but there are workers from 100s of firms worried about their futures.
And great to have you back blogging Steve! At least people can have direct debate with you on here - whether they agree or disagree with your blogs, so keep it up!
The fact is , that JLR , or whatever the acronym today is, is making products that are no longer suitable for market.
On the one hand the powers that be are encouraging us to be " greener" and more enviromentally aware , and then thay are launching initiatives to save JLR from extinction . They are delaying the inevitable. Market forces will preside.
JLR is headed for extinction.
When was the last time you saw a Land Rover off road doing some thing useful ?
I've parked next to plenty in supermarket car parks, whilst their owners are blissfully unaware of the hazards their stupidly large vehicles are making of themselves.
Get real. We are living in a society that will increasingly disapprove of gas guzzling vehicles , which will ultimately be judged as the automotive equivalent of tobacco smokers , taxed to the hilt , and frowned upon as selfish, self indulgent dullards.
Pip Pip.
Quoting Mr 'D':
"No, of course not. No company can ask for Govt loans if it is within their own powers to reduce/manage costs and still make profit."
So JLR request Government help by way of bridging loans then go ahead weeks later and axe several hundred staff to presumably 'reduce/manage costs and make profit'.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7828201.stm
MMMmmmm....
Not reading your rulebook, or do JLR have a different set of rules?
Hi Steve, interesting reading this as i used to work for LandRover for 14 years until 2007.Since i realised in 2006 that most of britains industry stood no chance for the future along with the country it's self!My family & i decided to emigrate to Australia as the economics spoke for themselves;large developing country with 20 million residents & strict immigration laws.Compare this with Britain;60 million+(not including illegals)people on a small island no investment in industry or policies to combat cheap imports & virtually no border controls! Add to this the ridiculous notions that you can't fly your own flag as it may offend,then you can soon work out why i left.
I'm afraid until Britain separates itself from Europe & everyone else (America included)& starts applying laws & policies for it's own people then i'm afraid there's no hope.It's just simple mathematics & logic to solve the problems.Charity begins at home.
P.S sorry for only writing in English - hope this doesn't offend anyone.
I am a Jaguar worker and feel a tremendous conflict of interest. I realise that it seems such a cheek to ask for money off the government when shops like Woolworths got no help. I also realise how inane it sounds to people to say that once a large manufacturing plant is shutdown it will never reopen but 25% of British industry was lost in 81-82 and it never returned. When that happened what was always quoted was we were going become a service economy, enough said on that.
The truth is that the amount of cars that are are being built and sold at the moment no car company in the world is going to survive till the end of the year without government help, the overheads are simply too much.
The government is going to have to sub industry not just the car industry or they will go under. Do not think that car workers are going to come out unscathed there is going to be huge restructuring with at probably two plant closures out of the five at JLR alone.
My conflict of interest arises from the fact I am a taxpayer (at the moment!) I don't think we should give taxpayer money to private industry but if we don't, be aware there will be no industry left by the end of 2010 especially the car industry that won't last till the summer!