Like a loving, wealthy mother with a homely daughter, Britain's Labor government for months has hinted at, prompted and hoped for a marriage between the forlorn British Aircraft Corp. and the airframe interests of the handsomely profitable Hawker Siddeley Group Ltd. BAC was shyly willing; Hawker Siddeley was reluctant. Whereupon the old lady—Her Majesty's government—stepped in, urged a sort of shotgun merger.
In proposing" (which in this case is a euphemism for ordering) the merger of the two to the House of Commons, Minister of Aviation Fred Mulley argued that the new, merged firm would put the ailing British aircraft...