Poor design and piss poor management is the Unions fault? This is the reasoning repeated when most American manufacturing has relocated to China where people get paid next to nothing and there are no environmental laws. It all comes down to greed, think that Thatcher did good for busting the Unions by getting rid of the offending industries, way to cut off your nose to spite your face.
Sort of reminds me of hearing a guy talking the advantages of supply side economics in a homeless encampment.
No, poor design and poor management is not the fault of the unions. But god-awful assembly quality and terrible reliability in many cases does boil down to the unions. Near constant industrial action makes for many problems too. The British auto industry was not the only one to deal with that, of course. But they had it the worst. There are lots of countries with substantial auto industries with unionized workers (Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, France, Sweden.....) and they do quite well, thank you. Nobody is ignoring the long list of screwups made by the British auto industry. But to ignore the problems the unions themselves caused is not possible.
As to the idea of emptying out British production, BL was nationalized in 1975, and in Britain any time from about 1955 until Thatcher, the idea of moving British Leyland or it's predecessor companies' production offshore in large amounts would have resulted in nationalization on the spot. Not gonna happen.
The best case scenario I can see is that British Motor Holdings (BMH) is bought in the mid-1960s, and Tony Benn's wish to merge them is foiled. Leyland (which includes Rover, Triumph, Standard and Land Rover) stays a successful manufacturer. BMH sees much of the massive duplication in its lineup removed in the 1970s. Several high-profile moves of industrial capacity abroad hammer the point home to the unions.
Both move on in the 1980s, with a number of excellent products made by both in the 1980s, which rebuilds their reputation both in Europe and in North America. Leyland eventually moves entirely into the higher-end field, with Rover, Triumph, and Land Rover. BMH sells Jaguar to Leyland in 1985, focusing its luxury cars on the Daimler name. BMH focuses its efforts on Austin, whittling away the Morris name, while keeping the Mini (which continues to sell well even into the 1980s) and focusing the MG name for its more sporting models. Thus set up, both companies are quite healthy by the end of the 1980s. This ultimately also sees the two firms take over several of the smaller British automakers, with BMH buying up Rolls-Royce and Bentley in 1992 and Leyland taking on half of Aston Martin in 1987. Lotus is one of the few exceptions, with it bought by General Motors in 1986.
Leyland's problems with distribution are solved by an alliance with Ford for marketing, established in 1994. This deal sees Ford take over Jaguar and Aston Martin, while hundreds of Ford dealerships become the dealers for Leyland automobiles. This deal ends up being successful for most of the dealers and substantially expands Leyland's reach in the US market. Leyland adds TVR to its stable in 1998.
Over the 1980s, the unions and both companies have a highly adversarial relationship, but the unions quickly realize who Thatcher and the government are likely to side with. The management of both companies (though Leyland works harder than BMH does at this) is keen to repair the relationship between the workers and management. This leads to a long period of labor peace between management and the workers in the 1980s and 1990s.
As of 2010, BMH is a mid-pack automaker in terms of production, producing 2.78 million automobiles in 2009, placing them behind Honda (3.01 million) but narrowly ahead of Nissan (2.74 million). Leyland produces 1.21 million vehicles, which puts them behind BMW but far ahead of Mazda, Chrysler and Mitsubishi. The two companies between them employ 130,000 workers in the UK and nearly that number again abroad, with the largest foreign operations in Canada, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and the United States.
Leyland Brands: Rover, Triumph, Land Rover, TVR
BMH Brands: Austin, Morris, MG, Mini, Jensen, Rolls-Royce, Bentley
GM Owned: Vauxhall, Lotus
Ford Owned: Aston Martin, Jaguar
Independent: Ariel, Bristol, Caterham, Marcos, McLaren, Morgan, Westfield