Can't ignore sheer greed of The Four

No-one emerges with much credit from the tangled mess of MG Rover.

Today's report is highly critical of the "Phoenix Four" who drew about £40 million in pay and pensions as the company struggled.

It was an obscene amount of money. Although the Four did nothing illegal, this was a classic example of what Edward Heath famously described as "the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism".

In a robust response, the Four seem to think they have not even done anything wrong. Perhaps they should walk a mile in the shoes of the former Longbridge workers and gain a sense of proportion.

The Four point out that the Government could have done more. That may be true. Whitehall has spent more on today's £16 million report than it ever invested in MG Rover. And yet is it the job of governments to save lame-duck companies?

On the very day that this report was unveiled, the German government is staking billions of euros to keep Opel in business.

Supporting car companies is ruinously expensive. With bitter memories of the millions poured into British Leyland in the 1970s, can anyone blame our Government for not signing yet another massive cheque?

The bottom line is that MG Rover was probably doomed from the outset. It was too small, a minnow in a world where even big fish are dying.

But whatever the rights and wrongs and whatever the law may say, its demise will always be inextricably linked with four men who became extremely rich as their workforce contemplated poverty.