But by way of private enterprise, foreign investment and heroic workers the British car industry has risen to be one of the best in the world once again - albeit almost in entirely oversees ownership. The Nissan factory in Sunderland is the most efficient in all of the EU and produces more cars than the entire Italian car industry combined.
And all this with the EU trying to kill our luxury brands.
Jaguar Land Rover is in a perfectly healthy state in 2013 - churning out car after lovely car in bright, vibrant factories where men and women work side by side with robots. Not one of its models is duff and the company's future seems bright.
I visited the Jaguar plant at Castle Bromwich back in March and can report it is a hive of business. The staff were positively buzzing about the new F-Type.
What struck me as odd, until it was explained to me, was that alongside the Jaguar workers were bright-yellow clothed DHL staff, and forklift trucks. The Man From Jaguar pointed out that DHL are contracted to move stuff about within the factories whilst the JLR staff actually crack on with the business of making cars.
It all seemed to work rather well.
Until now that is. The BBC reports that the DHL staff have gone on strike. What in the name of moronic f*ckwittery is this?
The DHL staff who are going on strike are members of the Unite Union. The Unite Union is the Labour party's biggest paymaster yet 62.5% of its members don't vote Labour. The General Secretary of Unite is called Len McCluskey. Len McCluskey earns £122,000 a year.
What a shower of sh*ts. Unite needs to sort its own affairs out before it starts trying to recreate the 1970s, when it helped decimate an entire industry.
Jaguar Land Rover is a brilliant British firm. Let's hope a few swivel eyed militants don't drag it down.
