Going off at 85
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I heard of a novel retirement scheme at third hand this week. Ron Ellis, the British Leyland globe-trotting managing director, was telling CM's globe-trotting editor, who then told stay-at-home me about a visit he had made to the States recently. It had to do with Spicers transmission or something, but we'll hear about that later—the more important aspect to me was the retirement scheme.
It seems that when a male employee can add his length of service to his age and aggregate 85 then he may retire on full pension. When worked out all it means it that if a man starts work with a company at 15 and continues in their employ for 35 years he retires at 50. Simple, isn't it ? But just in case there are any snags watch this space. CM's editor went to the States last weekend to ask around, and if there's any more to say you can depend on it he'll say it. Before the anti-sex group dash for their pens, we are talking about the USA where the dear old-fashioned things still have two sexes. "We are still trying to get into all corners and burn upall the fuel, but we have no plans for mass production."
I believe these guys at Bedford don't level with you. I was led to this opinion by E. E., who is the most persuasive American I have listened to apart from "There you go" McCloud, the TV cop. "We don't level with anybody," he said. "We are either going up or going down and this year we are going up." He justified his opinion by explaining that General Motors are enjoying their highest penetration into the American market and he claims that in the UK they have been leading the truck market—" We call them lorries—it's a good old British name "—for the past three months in the upwards of the 3.5-ton range.
Was this why Elliott was smiling? Was this the reason for the bonhomie or "How are ya, Buddy?" Perhaps it was a mixture of many things; it could even have been that last weekend he was going back Stateside to the Presidential primaries, the July Ford turkey feast, or to celebrate their liberation from the Mother Country. Whatever it was he told Fleet Street that today's team at Vauxhall was the strongest they had ever fielded. A few of the Bedford men were even seen to be blushing.