We Ain't Going Away!: The Battle For Longbridge (Paperback)

‘Gadfly’ diary in The Mail On Sunday, 3 Sep 2000 Headline: ROVER CHIEFS HATCH BOOK

THE uneasy truce between the West Midlands and establishment types in London over the fate of the Rover car plant at Longbridge looks set to be blown apart once again. Birmingham historian and broadcaster Carl Chinn is putting the finishing touches to a book, co-authored by journalist Stephen Dyson. It promises to set the record straight over the struggle for the factory, in which local hero John Towers went up against venture capitalist Alchemy Partners. Due out in October, 'We Ain't Going Away!' The Battle for Longbridge, will recount, in characteristically blunt Black Country tones, the events that led to Towers' Phoenix consortium securing Rover for a token £10 in May. Exposed will be deep divisions between Trade & Industry Secretary Stephen Byers and his fellow ministers over which of the two bidders they should back, and the mass rally that brought 80,000 workers and supporters to the streets of Birmingham to lobby against Alchemy - vilified as greedy asset-strippers. But the authors have reserved their fiercest broadside for the press, notably The Sun and The Guardian, which they accuse of taking an unremittingly pessimistic view of Phoenix's chances. 'Financiers and journalists in London never gave Towers a chance,' said Chinn. 'But a lot of people in the Midlands wanted us to write this book to tell the real story.' London opinion-formers may reassure themselves that Towers has still to prove that he can make a success of Rover. But this is one tome that will raise a cheer in the Midlands.

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‘Observer’ diary in the Financial Times, 1 Sep 2000 Headline: DRIVEN OFF

Now here's a useful present for Jon Moulton, the chap who thought he'd taken the wheel at Rover Cars before that horrible Phoenix lot drove him off the road. It's a book on the tub-thumping spring saga, jointly penned by Brummie historian Carl Chinn and local journalist Stephen Dyson - and Alchemy boss Moulton won't like it very much. 'We Ain't Going Away! The Battle For Longbridge makes it crystal clear that trade and industry minister Stephen Byers was the prime mover behind the successful Phoenix bid. Moulton, who wasn't best pleased by Byers' intervention, is not thought to be the hero of an account that boasts a foreword by the victorious Phoenix boss John Towers. Whereas Byers, who hardly came through the bruising crisis with his reputation intact, emerges as a bit of a hero. So he might want to buy a few copies for his cabinet friends.

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