Partners in strife
Page 32
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The links between hauliers and Ford were stressed by Sir Terence Beckett, Ford's chairman and managing director, responding to John Silbermann's toast of the guests. The common ground included critical strikes, each caused by Government pay policy and interference, without which, Sir Terence suggested, the unions would probably have settled for less.
Even so, he managed to extract humour from the unions' ban on the scheduled Ford exhibits at the Motor Show last October. One of the substitutes, a 1937 Prefect saloon, probably attracted more attention than would the model for which it was surrogate.
Men of mature years gazed with nostalgia at the back seat, said Sir Terence. One, deep in recollection, muttered. "I can't understand the modern generation's obsession with incar entertainment."