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The claim that, for all its other problems, the decline of of BMC was due to expansion in anticipation of the application to the EEC being accepted when De Gaulle rejected it IOTL seems to make sense. With the money invested in the expansion that was slammed shut, BMC was denied an economy of scale and had less to invest in its production, leading to the Leyland merger and subsequent downward spiral that is well known.

The question I'm wondering is how great an improvement for BMC/BMH (and by extension, the whole UK auto industry) the EEC accession would have actually been if it had been accepted at the time. Could it (in addition to any other political effects) have saved BMC?
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