Dagenham Dustbin?

So the motorsport season is over and Ford WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen took it to the wire, losing the championship by only one point. After such a hard campaign he took a well deserved rest by visiting the Ford Heritage Collection. So you're in Dagenham, home of Ford, you have a choice of historical, iconic vehicles and you're suddenly peckish. What to do? A quick blast in a GT40 to the Ivy restaurant? Charge down to Southend in an XR3i for some local seafood? Nah, this is Dagenham afterall.....let's hope this isn't next season's car!

Well the summer draws to a close and the run up to Christmas starts. Desperate for a holiday the wife and I took the trainee terrorists (female aged 12 going on 18 and male 15 going on 'whatever') to Dorset. We deliberately chose a site with nothing on it, so forcing us to go out every day. And so it was. At the crack of dawn the troops assembled and we toured the county. In the evening we looked forward to the bliss of a quiet night, no drunken youths, no booming music from a club house and no middle-aged karaoke wannabes. Quality family time would allow us to do things we no longer seemed to have time for; play board games, watch dvds, talk. All was peaceful, all was bliss, until four nights in when the ground rocked and every five minutes or so a boom broke the silence. For those unfamiliar with Dorset it is a beautiful county full of lovely, open countryside and rolling hills. In fact, the exact type of area the British Army find perfect for training their tank drivers. And...

Celebrity just doesn't float my boat. Sorry, but I can't get excited just because some silicon enhanced airhead manages to sleep with a film star or some testosterone filled footballer gets half a million quid for kicking a piece of leather. In my job I'm lucky to meet many people. And every now and then, usually when I least expect it, I get to meet a real inspiration. Several years ago I met Simon Weston, the former Welsh Guardsman who was horrifically burned during the Falklands War. We (Ford) were involved in a charity event for the Soldiers, Sailors and Airforce Association at Romney in Kent, that Simon attended. Despite his own injuries this quiet, unassuming man made time for everybody and made everyone he spoke to feel special. I regarded it (and still do) as an honour to be involved, even if only peripherally, in the event. More recently, last week I met Jane Sowerby ( http://www.janesowerby.co.uk/ ). Jane is young, bubbly and a world ranked skier. She also happens...

I don't know what's sadder, the idea of recreating Dagenham in Wales or dramatically changing a film title from "We Want Sex" to "Dagenham Girls". In 1968 a small group of machinists at the Ford factory in Dagenham went on strike; they were being paid less than men doing the same job. Students of industrial history will know strikes in the car industry were not unusual but this one sticks out because the government of the day got involved and it helped force the Equal Pay Act 1970 into law. Number 9 films are turning the story into a comedy/drama. Originally entitled "We Want Sex" after a banner the women carried, the "Equality" somehow went stray, they have now, rather timidly, renamed the project "Dagenham Girls" - not sure which has the worse connotations! Even worse, they have resorted to recreating the Dagenham factory in the wilds of Wales ( http://tinyurl.com/ln7npz ). You'd think with a major recession underway they ...

Sometimes all life is rosy. Everything is going along smoothly, the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Unfortunately, look up at the wrong moment and those same birds are likely to deposit something unpleasant in your eye. And so it was this past weekend. There I was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed showing off the Ford IosisMAX concept car and chatting to, on the whole, some lovely members of the public. Over in the paddocks sat the one of the vehicles I'm responsible for. The car won the 1995 London to Mexico race and has had several outings since, all with barely a scratch. So it was with no concern at all I sent it to Goodwood to be driven the relatively safe, 1.16 mile, uncluttered hill climb course that is the spectacle of the weekend. You can probably guess what happened next. Thankfully, it was the car's last run of the weekend but suffice to say those birds were circling overhead - http://tinyurl.com/nunz6t I guess I really should be upset but the crash gaine...