Who'd be a car worker in Britain? Between BMW pulling the plug on Rover, selling it on to a group whose only interest appears to be a niche market for sports cars and Ford threatening to shut down its Dagenham plant, home of the Fiesta, it's been a poor week all round.
For those not intimately involved, however, it has been enlightening to watch the unseemly spat between the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his Trade and Industry Secretary, Stephen Byers, on one side and the management of BMW, led by Prof Joachim Milberg, on the other.
It was nice to see Mr Blair find someone he cannot browbeat with his weighty majority as he fulminated against the Germans breaking their word, only to have them counter with cutting remarks about his government's inability to control the strength of sterling or its euro policy.
Listening to Mr Byers complaining about the failure of BMW to talk to the government before making its decision recalled British insouciance in the face of German political anger at the daring and ultimately successful raid by Vodafone Airtouch on Mannesmann. What goes around, comes around.
Dominic Coyle can be contacted at dcoyle@irish-times.ie
