"Bit of a squash for the chauffeur, sir" no doubt says the official showing the Duke of Edinburgh around the Rootes car plant at Linwood in 1963 where the Hillman Imp was made. The car plant was built at Linwood with sizeable Government grants in an attempt to offset the thousands of job losses in the Clyde shipbuilding yards. However when the company was later sold to an American corporation, new American bosses had no time for the trade unions, strikes proliferated, and the plant eventually closed in 1981.
Mind you it probably didn't help that the Imp, innovative in design with a rear-mounted aluminium engine, had a tendency to break down in the wet. The one I had snapped its accelerator cable which left it scarily powerless on the outside lane of the motorway one day.
But forget about cars. Wasn't Prince Philip a good looking chap in his prime? Well done the Queen.
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