Maybe Shanghaiceltic could quote one or two sources for the wilder of his assertions. The Range Rover was a worldbeater for two generations, truly in a class of its own as Richard Bridges has just expressed it. MayShanghaiceltic is thinking of the shoddy ill-conceived budget version of a SUV, the Land Rover Freelander, which has indeed had all kinds of problems.

Contrary to Shanghaiceltic's undrstanding, there is a wide consesus among analysts that MG Rover's intellectual property was a key element in any potential deal. But most of that knwledge has filtered to the Chinese already through a series of sub-deals, according to Alchemy - the venture capitalists who five years ago were keen to acquire the Longbridge operation, but only as a niche supplier exploiting the MG brand.

I'd be all for governmenta intervention if it was along the state-ownership lines proposed by Richard. Such intervention was the salvation of Rools-Royce, for instnace - a major world player in high-technology aero-engineering ever since. And intervention in that case was by HEath's Tory governmenet. I oppose intervention only when it is an opportunity for people like the Phoenix people to leech money out of the public purse into their own bank accounts.