It's all about the cars

The US government is pumping £11 billion in to sustaining the US car industry, but like like the British government in the 1970s pouring cash in to British Leyland, the US government is actually blind to the realities of the world and the deeper problems the US car industry has.

As the rest of the world knows, the US makes some shockingly poor cars. Bumpy suspension, poor road holding, odd "standard features", that nobody in the rest of the world wants (self locking seat belts ?), terrible handling, odd looking monoliths that burn petrol at a rate that a 1950's jet fighter would be embarrassed by.

Just like British Leyland, these manufacturers can only really sell to their own market, and again just like Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, cheaper better made cars are increasingly taking market share away from home grown producers in the states.

The truth of the matter is that the only really innovative parts of Ford and GM are their overseas divisions which turn out much better cars with world wide appeal.

So whilst Bush might be putting £11 billion on to the US car giants, the reality is that this will be the first hand out of many until these US car giants look at the rest of the world and adopt what every other manufacturer in the world does.