As the article suggests, a controversial figure. Perhaps some of our English
friends could comment on this, since
they were certainly closer to the whole situation....
http://www.thisisdorset.net/display.var.2409080.0.tributes_as_exbl_boss_dies_aged_94.php
Tributes as ex-BL boss dies aged 94
By Daily Echo reporter
Comment
controversial figure: Lord Stokes
THE
former chairman of British Leyland, Lord Stokes, who died earlier this
week at his home in Poole at the age of 94, will always be a
controversial figure in the history of the nation's car industry.
While some blame him for the decline of British motor manufacturing,
others see him as a talented businessman whose efforts to run the fifth
largest car manufacturer in the world profitably were wrecked by trade
unions and the government.
Donald Stokes was regarded as an eccentric at public school because he wanted
to study engineering and work in a factory.
He served his apprenticeship with bus and truck manufacturers
Leyland during the 1930s and became export manager after serving in the
Army during World War Two.
He was made a director in 1954, then chairman in 1967.
Great names such as Triumph, Rover, Austin, Morris, Daimler, Jaguar,
MG and Land Rover were brought under the company's umbrella through a
series of takeovers and mergers.
advertisement
But with BMC - which made Minis and MGs among others - the company
inherited financial and management problems. There were also constant
strikes and some clunky designs, such as the Morris Marina and the
Austin Allegro.
In a 1989 interview with the Daily Echo, Lord Stokes recalled:
"Whatever move my management made to try and improve a product or
facility, the unions called a strike.
"We should have been fighting with the unions, not against them. We should have
been united against the Japanese.
"We also had endless interference from the government.
"For example, we were instructed to build factories in places that were
obviously uneconomic."
He and his first wife Laura, who had one son, bought their clifftop
Branksome Park flat as a weekend home in the 1970s and moved there
permanently after he left British Leyland, which was nationalised under
the then Industry Minister Tony Benn.
Lord Stokes became a well known figure in the town, presenting the
Poole edition of the BBC programme "All Change For" back in 1979. He
became founding chairman of 2CR and branch president of the Ferndown
Muscular Dystrophy Group in 1980. A keen sailor, he also actively
supported the Sea Cadets.
Knighted in 1965, he became a life peer four years later and was a
cross-bencher in the House of Lords. Following Laura's death in 1995,
he married the current Lady Stokes, Patricia, in 2000.
Dan D
Central NJ USA
'76 MGB Tourer - Engine Reinstalled...
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