Sun British Leyland Fail

Rupe’s downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun need no encouragement to pour scorn and ridicule on the Labour leadership contest. They are truly self-starters when it comes to laying into the party. And sometimes they are so eager to put the boot in that ideas such as factual accuracy and background research are abandoned altogether. One such prime example has been duly excreted today.

Not a British Leyland car, but hey ho

Under the by-line of deputy political editor Steve Hawkes, a title which suggests he should have known better, readers are told “CORBYN WILL LEY US LOW … Revolt on Clause IV - the pro-nationalisation policy dumped by Tony Blair in 1995”. All four leadership contenders are seen with faces crudely photoshopped as occupants of what is described as a “British Leyland Car”. What jolly fun for the Baby Shard inmates!

Hawkes goes on (they do tend to go on at the Sun) “Labour’s bitter leadership contest erupted into civil war as Jeremy Corbyn was accused of trying to return the party to the disastrous ‘days of British Leyland’”. Readers are helpfully told that British Leyland (BL) was “the state-owned car maker famed for strikes and poor motors”. Well, not for the first years of its life, it wasn’t. And that’s not the only howler on view.

BL began life in 1968, and although this merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings was encouraged by the then Labour Government, the firm was not nationalised. That came in 1975, which brings us to the alleged “British Leyland Car” in the photo. You may have already guessed that the car is not, repeat not, repeat NOT, a British Leyland one. For the benefit of Sun journalists, I’ll take this one nice and slowly.

That car is a Morris 1100, one of many variants of what is technically known as British Motor Corporation ADO16, a family of cars launched in 1962, and for many years the best-selling car in Britain. The cars were “badge engineered” as Austin, MG, and other marques. Now, it’s true that variants of ADO16 continued in production well into the BL years, but sadly, that excuse is also not available to Sun hacks.

There are two reasons for this: one, ADO16 production came to an end in 1974, the year before BL was taken into public ownership (it was replaced by the Austin Allegro, which has gone down in infamy for being “the car with the square steering wheel”). And two, the car in that photo is not only a Morris 1100, it is a Mark 1 Morris 1100, and production of those ceased in 1967 - the year before BL came into being.

So that makes the Sun’s version of BL, er, a bit of a “poor motor” of its own. Hawkes and his pals can whine about nit-picking all they want - had someone, for instance, used a masthead of the Sun from the days before Creepy Uncle Rupe took it over, they would be the first to complain about factual accuracy.

Still, they got the name of the Labour Party right, and managed to identify the four leadership contenders correctly, so that’s all right, then.