On government backed loans for Jaguar

There are several things to say. First, although I have reservations about electric cars, let’s be clear that this is a nascent Green New Deal in operation.

Second, let’s also be clear that this is the government picking winners and losers.

And third, quite unambiguously this is the government acting as a banker to the private sector.

And, fourth, the sum involved is far from insignificant.

So, fifth, let’s never again hear opponents of the Green New Deal and a National Investment Bank saying that it is not the government’s job to do any of these things: very clearly it is. A Tory government has just proved that.

What about those of us who think that government shouldn’t be trying to pick winners and also shouldn’t be guaranteeing loans in this manner? That we disagree with Tory policy doesn’t mean we have to accept it, surely?

But much more fun. Note what the Senior Lecturer’s argument actually is. A Tory Government is doing this, therefore by definition it is right to do this. An interesting idea that, isn’t it?

27 thoughts on “On government backed loans for Jaguar”

  6. TD

    Try and find a politician of any stripe who doesn’t consider picking winners and losers or re-engineering society to part of their job description. They differ only in degree to which they fall in thrall to such heady power.

  8. Bloke on M4

    John Davis,

    They’ll happen but it could take a very long time. Range and battery life are still questionable. Not sure I’d guarantee a load of loans for Jaguar, who seem to be sinking.

  10. Bloke on M4

    TD,

    Even Brexit Party are all about High Streets. The High Streets can fucking die as far as I’m concerned.

  11. john 77

    Who owns Jaguar?
    Could it possbly be a foreigner who wants a subsidy from British taxpayers?
    Or is that a cynical question?

  12. BlokeInTejas

    John 77

    Yeah, it’s Tata.

    But I own a Jaguar, too. It’s just a base model XE, but it’s most certainly the most pleasurable car I’ve ever owned or driven. Cheap on fuel, cheap on insurance, adequately quick, a pleasure on long fast journeys (Austin to Colorado..). Eh, not bad.

    Had an Evoque before. I think that taught JLR how to make medium-volume, high quality cars. Evoque was a pleasure, too (with more space for luggage…). But at ‘highway speeds’ (80-85 mph..) it rather gulped down the gasoline. And being heavier wore out brakepads quicker. And…

    Previous “aye, that’s fun” was an Alfa-Romeo AlfaSud 1.6 Ti, back in Blighty many many years ago….

  14. BlokeInTejas

    Rob

    I think more than one car company was wrong-footed by the EU’s sudden change in stance on diesel.

    Rather than it being the thinking man’s choice, it’s now the very devil’s spawn. This can have an effect on sales…

    So I’m not totally agin governments paying for their egregious errors.

  15. Bloke in Wales

    So I’m not totally agin governments paying for their egregious errors.

    It’s not governments that pay. We do. Twice over.

  16. Mr Ecks

    Tory=BlueLabour shite.

    Most of their scum MPs believe 75%+ of the same leftist brainsmear as the ZaNu scum sitting opposite them.

    Bollocks to all eco-freaks and the electric shit-wagon glorified milk-floats they aspire to peddle.

  18. Edward Lud

    I’ve got an XE, Mr in Tejas, and previously owned an Alfa GT.

    The diesel engine on the XE is a bore. The car is basically a Ford Mondeo with a Jag badge. But it’s ok. The fuel consumption is undeniably good and there’s enough oomph to make it feel like a Jag.

    The Alfa, however, was a thing of some beauty and made a lovely noise. From a standing start it could give a Boxster a run for its money. I wanted a Giulia, but the prats now in charge of Alfa decided against a proper gearbox. I mean, how stupid does the current Alfa brass have to be to think that their base market does not want a proper gearbox?

    “The paddle shift is very engaging sir”, said the salesman. Balls. If your foot’s not engaged, what the difference with switching on the windscreen wipers?

    And why is there no two-door version? And where’s the promised Veloce?

    I demand answers!

  20. Gamecock

    TD, fascism has become the norm. Government is assumed to have unlimited power; constitutions are useless, as they are ignored.

    Debate consists of whether or not some new regulation is a good idea or bad. That the government has no damn authority to make the regulation is never considered.

  21. jgh

    “Education – Trainee teachers no longer required to pass Maths & English tests before allowed to teach”

    Splwetter!”!!!
    My grandma and granddad got into grammar school, got university scholarships, fought narrzies and were kicked out of aeroplaces (with parachutes) and were rewarded with free PGCE teaching placements. And now they want people who are by definintion clearly unfit to be employed full stop to be employed as teachers???

  22. phil

    @Edward Lud, a traction engine is where it’s at with driver engagement. Pneumatic tyres are for snowflakes.

  23. BlokeInTejas

    BiW

    Yes, I know. But still, when they f*ck over some small group because of unsignalled strategy changes, the small group is cruelly hurt. It’s arguably our fault for electing the incompetents who had the bad strategy and then made the change, so it’s ok for us to pay. (We do, anyway; except when the ‘investment’ pays off well)

    I reckon that the constant refrain on here of “give government exactly as much power is *necessary* to do its job, and not one penny more” is a sound basis.

  24. BlokeInTejas

    Mr Lud

    Alas, being cash strapped back then, I couldn’t afford a GT. Lovely beast.

    But then, being cash strapped seems more or less permanent…

    🙂

  26. bloke in spain

    I concur about paddle shifts, M’Lud. Horrible things. Neither fish nor fowl. Took a Citróen, had one, cross country through 200km of winding French roads & i reckon I could have done it quicker in an auto. I use the engine & gearbox to vary the CofG of the car & with all its built in understeer it wanted to go straight on at every bend rather than slide round them with its tail out. Everything seems to happen a crucial fraction of a second later than needed.
    Maybe they work better on competition cars but competition cars are set up entirely differently to road cars. And are pigs to drive in road driving conditions.

  27. Wonko the sane

    its a straightforward sweetener to stay, hidden under the cover of a “green” investment. Appears to have worked as well, in terms of press don’t seem to have cottoned. But what does it say for Tata. First stung by Diesel, and now by electric!

  28. theProle

    @Phil

    You don’t want a traction engine, although my experiences steering a 20T 1870s steam ploughing engine (as built, with no brakes) around Nottingham in the rush hour won’t be forgotten any time soon.

    Nor will the trip out with a Fowler road loco with rather tall gearing, where we had a copper point a speed gun at us, probably not without reason…

    Late Foden or Sentinel steam lorry is where its at – rubber tyres, 50mph cruising speed, and brakes that actually work…

  29. Gamecock

    Flappy paddles on the new GT500 save me $80,000US.

    A proper manual transmission will not be offered. So Gamecock won’t be buying one.

    The Ford engineer on youtube says, “Why, with this fabulous high tech transmission can change gears in 100 milliseconds!”

    Great. How long from 5th to second? And how do you know which gear you are in at any given time?

    My BMW R 1200 R has a sequential transmission. I’m okay with it because I don’t have a free hand to deal with a stick.

  32. Pcar

    Re: Loan to Jaguar

    All part of May’s Poisonous Legacy

    Theresa May’s final weeks in Downing Street have been much like the rest of her tenure: ungracious, uninspiring and unprincipled. May’s latest departing gesture is a gigantic £500 million loan guarantee to Jaguar Land Rover to help with the development of electric cars. This follows on from the government’s £120 million loan to British Steel (which is now in receivership). But how does dishing out huge sums of money to corporate giants fit in with May’s claim to stand up for the “Just About Managing”?

    The simple answer? It doesn’t. But in a desperate bid to help JAMs, May has created an “Office for Tackling Injustices” in order to “gather data” on socio-economic, ethnic, and gender disparities. Yet this approach, which is based on the flawed idea that any difference between people is evidence of bigotry, won’t help. A quango that no one asked for is a good way to waste money. But it isn’t the answer to any problem.

    May is also trying to make tackling climate change part of her legacy in order to distract from the mess she has made of Brexit. Just days after her resignation last month, May committed the UK to “net zero carbon emissions by 2050”. Usually when politicians make long-shot targets they can at least pretend they will be around long enough to put some policies in place. But in this case, May is trying to bind future governments to a project that will cost hundreds of millions without the faintest clue about how it will be achieved.

    May also seems to be doing her bit to make tackling a current crisis – ensuring that housing in Britain becomes more affordable – even trickier for her successor. In recent weeks, the PM has called for more red tape on home building and rentals. May said this was to ensure that the quality of new homes was good enough. But in reality, these measures are likely only to make housing even more expensive in the middle of a housing crisis that is causing the party of home owners to lose voters forever.

    May is a lame duck PM and it is time she started acting like one….Instead, we have a virtue-signalling new office, a series of bids to bind future parliaments and huge sums of money tied up. Far from ensuring her legacy is a positive one, May’s final weeks in office will leave a bitter taste in the mouth.

    These measures will also add to the consensus that her time in office has been something of a disaster for her party… adopting large chunks of Labour’s big spending, high tax, economy-strangling red tape agenda.

    May introduced an energy price cap, which has resulted in energy companies increasing prices and offering fewer cheap deals. She promised hundreds of billions more for the NHS without any corresponding commitment to improved patient outcomes.

    So the current state of the Conservatives – a party in a shambles, which lurches from one mistaken policy to the next – is the sad but very real legacy for May…

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/07/we-are-all-paying-the-price-for-mays-desperate-bid-to-define-her-legacy/

    I’ve said for years that May like Major is a Socialist. Conservative Party infiltrated and infested with Socialist, Europhile MPs

  33. Gamecock

    Pcar, TL-DR.

    Straight cut gears are not used in passenger cars because of noise. Known for generations.

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