It’s decision time. Britain needs to ask itself if it wants to be a major car producer or whether it’s content to sit on the sidelines.

 

I’ve long warned that the UK has, in production terms, been tumbling down the international league tables. We now churn out as few cars as countries as Malaysia and at-war Russia. 

 

Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey have no domestic car makers of international renown. But they build more cars than us. As for the Brazilians, South Koreans, Germans, Indians, Japanese and Chinese… they still thrash us. They’re all thriving. We’re barely surviving.