MIKE RUTHERFORD

THERE'S no point in trying to sugarcoat the hard-to-swallow fact that car production numbers in Britain are tumbling at an alarming rate.

- 

Before I explain how I reckon the unsustainable decline can be seriously slowed, halted or even reversed, it’s important to look closely at and understand our productivity, past and present.

In 1955, Blighty’s brave, bruised and battered workers, still recovering and rebuilding after the trauma of World War II, produced 897,560 cars - mightily impressive given that their factories were primitive, conditions lousy and automation was either low priority or nonexistent.

Come the seventies, a very different tribe of workers was revolting, as they repeatedly downed tools at plants that were low-tech by today’s standards. Still, annual car production in that tumultuous decade never fell below a million, and, in 1972, reached a record high of 1.9 million.