‘Copy nothing,’ implored Jaguar’s weird advert featuring multicoloured changelings swivelling their heads on a car-free planet. That includes, it seems, copying other large multinationals in taking out insurance to cover themselves against cyber attacks. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), it turns out, had none. Now, following such an attack, it finds itself in the soup. It has had to close its factories and send its workers home as it tries to repair the damage. The government is now reported to be thinking of stepping in with state aid to ensure that the company and its suppliers do not go bust.
Why should our taxes be used to bail out a woke and aloof company?
Please, no. Why should our taxes be used to bail out a woke and aloof company which says it is no longer interested in selling cars for under £100,000? It is not a public service. It has scorned its faithful customers by telling them in as many words that it doesn’t want their custom anymore. It condemned people who criticised its advert, accusing them of ‘vile hatred and intolerance’. Its cars have become, ridiculous, over-sized, polluting monsters which don’t fit the roads, and which end up being parked all over the pavements.
The company may not even have a future at all, cyber attack or not. The Jaguar side of the business has stopped selling cars in Britain in any case while it waits to unveil a new, electric vehicle which, in artist’s impressions, looks like Lady Penelope’s car with an air conditioning unit welded on the front. If it thinks it can make a living flogging cars like this, then fine, good luck – that’s free enterprise for you. But I truly resent having my pockets picked by Rachel Reeves so that JLR can be lavished with my money. Not only would it put even more pressure on hopelessly overstretched public finances, it would send a terrible moral hazard for other companies: don’t bother insuring yourself against cyber attack because the government will pick up the bill.
The UK government spent decades bailing out failing car companies. It is an industry which has been favoured like none other. And what do we have to show for it? British Leyland and most of its constituent companies disappeared anyway, the victim of hubris and complacency, as well as the self-destructive behaviour of the unions. JLR is the last remnant of what was British Leyland. It is not even British-owned anymore: it is ultimately owned by Tata Motors of India. Britain would survive without it. Inspector Morse would find something else to drive.
Britain needs industrial revival, but it won’t be achieved by propping up particular companies. It will be achieved through low taxes, efficient regulation and low energy prices. It is energy prices, hiked up thanks to net zero policy, which are the real killer of UK manufacturing. The government doesn’t seem to be even nearly on the ball over this. Yet it is quite happy to get out the public purse to prop up JLR. It is just crony capitalism – trying to pick winners which it feels are especially prestigious.
The government seems to care little about cyber crime when it is elderly people relieved on their savings by scammers. Try reporting online fraud to the Police and you will be referred to something called Action Fraud – a misnamed quango which seems only interested in recording crime, not really doing anything about it other than telling people to be more careful next time. That needs to change, with cyber crime treated much more seriously. But no, we shouldn’t be coughing up to bail out yet another car company. In contrast to pensioners caught out by online criminals, it should have known better.
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