I'm a year behind my magazine reading (cruising habit means time away, but the magazines keep coming), and in a note I read yesterday, on the passing of Sir Michael Edwardes last year, Red Robbo, the communist union leader at BL, called no less than 523 strikes before Edwardes got rid of him.

IMHO, BL failed mainly due to three factors. Weak management (prior to Edwardes); Red Robbo and the unions; accountants carrying more weight than engineers. Shame as I have always been a BMC/BL/Rover/MG/Jaguar/Land Rover fan and the only car I have ever owned that didn't come from that large stable, is the Marcos - and even that has a a few BL parts in it.