As the Guardian has reported:
The government has handed Jaguar Land Rover a £500m loan guarantee to help accelerate its progress in the global electric vehicle race.
Theresa May said the loan would help Britain's biggest carmaker sell the next generation of electric cars around the world. She told a meeting of industry leaders at Downing Street on Monday that the funding pot would include £500m from UK Export Finance alongside another £125m from commercial lenders.
There are several things to say. First, although I have reservations about electric cars, let's be clear that this is a nascent Green New Deal in operation.
Second, let's also be clear that this is the government picking winners and losers.
And third, quite unambiguously this is the government acting as a banker to the private sector.
And, fourth, the sum involved is far from insignificant.
So, fifth, let's never again hear opponents of the Green New Deal and a National Investment Bank saying that it is not the government's job to do any of these things: very clearly it is. A Tory government has just proved that.
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It certainly looks and sounds like a Green New Deal intervention, Richard.
However, it smells like poor value for money…£200k loan cost per protected job (2,500 jobs) ?
Were the net present public sector cost of the loan to be, say, a fifth of the total loan this would still imply a cost per protected job of £40k. I look forward to reading about the government’s valuation of environmental benefits that justifies this investment. In Scotland, we would raise our fiscal eyebrows at such a seemingly high cost-benefit figure.
It seems Theresa may be watching Jaguar dancing all the way to the bank…
Entirely agreed – I noted my reservation
It sets a precedent or two but so did QE – fingers crossed.
BTW – like the new picture – you handsome devil you!!
Thank you….
It was time the beard got noted as it seems to have been around for a few months now
Yeah, right, it’s all about exports. Certainly not a Tory government subsidy for for an upmarket car producer which if market dogma was valid would be creaming profits now anyway and piling investment into the company. Of course they get away with it because ‘we’ are supposed to believe that Jaguar Landrover is ‘British’.
We seem to become steadily more gullible.
Ah! Is this related to their announcement the other week that they’ll be investing in electric car manufacture in the UK?
An announcement that was jumped on by Brexiteers desperate for some good news to support their folly?
If so, it proves once again that Brexit is being propped up by Billions in public finance support and further makes a mockery of their project.