Honda’s departure adds to the gloom enveloping Britain’s car industry
How Brexit matters in a devastating blow for British manufacturing
WORKERS AT HONDA’s car plant near Swindon, in Wiltshire, were told not to report for work on February 19th. It was a bitter foretaste of an uncertain future. The previous day news leaked out that the factory will close in 2021. This will cost 3,500 jobs at Honda, and at least another 3,500 among its suppliers. Greg Clark, the business secretary, called it a “devastating” blow, not only to Swindon, where Honda is one of the largest employers, but to British industry as a whole.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Call my bluff”
Britain February 23rd 2019
- Britain’s Parliament splinters
- Honda’s departure adds to the gloom enveloping Britain’s car industry
- The British government is growing warier of China
- Long hostile to the legal system, British trade unions have changed
- Brexit weakens Britain’s influence at the UN
- Police need to rethink how they deal with organised crime
- John McDonnell, Labour’s hard man
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