So red Robbo was right all along. Communism was, indeed, the answer. Longbridge, hope and heartbreak of the British car industry for decades, is to be rescued by Shanghai Automotive. Surely we could have saved ourselves much hand-wringing (and many a dodgy clutch) simply by letting Derek Robinson annexe that little bit of Birmingham, way back at the start of strife: the People's Republic of Longbridge may not by now have had achieved quite the slick global quasi-capitalistic success of China, but it would have been great fun to watch.

Here's to a reborn MG Rover: no longer waiting, like too many of its customers, for the Great Leap Forward.