BARING THE CONTRADICTIONS:

£280 a year for workers: £40m for directors (KAREN MCVEIGH, 4/16/05, The Scotsman)

TONY Blair was plunged headlong into a mid-election political crisis yesterday after the car giant Rover collapsed amid deep acrimony and bitterness.

The Prime Minister was panicked into abandoning campaigning and the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, cancelled a trip to the IMF in Washington to rush to Birmingham in an effort to salvage some of the government’s credibility after China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) announced there was no way it would buy any part of the company.

Armed with a £150 million compensation package, which includes the minimum statutory redundancy payments of just £280 for every year worked, the Prime Minister said he wanted to express "real sorrow" for the 6,100 workers who will lose their jobs.

If a pro-EU conservative party makes little sense, a labor party that doesn't "save" jobs makes none.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 17, 2005 12:00 AM