OV9

"Honda have been very clear – this decision has been made because of global trends and is not related to Brexit. The Turkey factory will also close as all European market production is being consolidated to Japan where the company is based."


https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/new ... e-mps-say/

Well, that's my fault for wanting to enjoy some schadenfruede, and not checking the latest sources I suppose.

Be interesting to see Hondas full statement, which is due tomorrow I believe?

Feel for the guys in Swindon, if true.

It's interesting to remember that Nissan, Toyota, Honda etc setup in the UK and elsewhere in Europe to get a foothold in the market and overcome heavy import duties back in the day. Whilst the FTA between the EU and Japan will no doubt facilitate domestic manufacture for the European market, Brexit can barely be ignored as a contributing factor. Rumour has it tomorrow's statement will name Brexit uncertainty as a factor in it too. After all, those Japanese built cars will need to be shipped half way around the world to land in Europe, which isn't cheap.

Ironically if there is a no-deal Brexit then Honda may wish they had at least some UK based manufacturing to continue to supply the OAPs of the UK with cars sans import duties.

We shouldn’t underestimate just how angry the Japanese Government is with the UK right now.

True dat.

A respect/custom issue is it?

I'm curious about this too; other than just generally being a bunch of incompetent, braying no-marks on both sides of the house, what have we done specifically to annoy our esteemed eastern chums?

Quick Google suggests it was down to a letter sent by Hunt and Fox that didn't show the respect expected.

DeskJockey wrote: Mon Feb 18, 2019 7:39 pm Quick Google suggests it was down to a letter sent by Hunt and Fox that didn't show the respect expected.

Wow, it's almost like diplomacy is a lost art in this country, innit?

Who needs it? The world will dance to Britain's tune because we're so very important. They should be grateful we'd even consider allowing them to buy our goods.

You can imagine the phone calls between Theresa May and Shinzo Abe.

18 months ago:

TM: "It will definitely be sorted, I give you my word"

Last week:

SA: "Wtf is going on?"

"Listen blud, trust, they're about to fucking give us everything"

You feel me fam?

Fam?

Well, Honda have said it's not a Brexit issue. Doesn't make it any easier to swallow though.

Little comfort to those affected. What the article doesn't mention is whether they would ever consider manufacturing in the UK again, if Brexit goes ahead - that is probably a "how long is a piece of string" type question, but would still indicate their state of thinking.

Welcome to last night

I'm in a different time zone, not really keeping up!

Naturally it’s clearly a huge disappointment but this because brexit thing just isn’t true.

The world is changing and cars are going through an unprecedented level of change.

In this instance yes, I agree.

These seems like the only vaguely political thread in which to post this, which I saw on Twitter and which tickled me greatly.

Javid becoming the new May, taking unlawful action. I’m not convinced by the argument that this girl is simply a brainwashed victim herself, but stripping her of her British citizenship is not something this country is legally allowed to do. Theresa tried the same thing and it went all the way to the Supreme Court - https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.c ... tml&query=(title:(+al-Jedda+)) - where, as usual, she lost. That case is directly relevant to the assertion that Begum can become a Bangladeshi citizen; the fact that she isn’t already a citizen of any other state means she cannot be stripped of British citizenship.