Evening Standard comment: Swindon loses Honda and yes, Brexit’s to blame; Wise words on prisons; London dresses up

It is polite to make an excuse when you leave somewhere early, and, in public, Japanese investors in Britain are nothing but polite.

That’s why Honda’s spokesman said this morning that the closure of the company’s Swindon plant had nothing to do with Brexit. Like a guest at a party where the hosts are having a nasty family row, Honda is backing out of the door as fast as it can.

Terribly sorry, it says — it’s not you, it’s us; of course we’d love to stay longer if we could.

We all know guests don’t mean it when they make excuses like this and we all know that Honda doesn’t mean it when it says Brexit didn’t shape its decision.

This morning’s depressing news is part of the accelerating degradation of our economic strength because of Brexit. Banking. Medicines. Aerospace. Car-making. They are all pulling back hard from Britain.

Why? Well, nothing is simple in business and Honda is right to say that the shift to electric vehicles is a challenge for an established industry. But every car plant in the world is trying to move away from fossil fuels. So what is it that makes those in Britain different?

The answer is that only ours also face the extra pressure of the loss of guaranteed access to the market which takes their products. Nine out of 10 cars made in Swindon are exported to other EU countries.

A month before a no-deal Brexit which a Conservative Prime Minister insists is an option, Honda is shutting one of its car factories for the first time in 71 years. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a consequence.

Here’s another question. What was it that brought companies such as Honda to Britain in the first place?

It was a promise from another female Conservative prime minister. Back in the Eighties she told businesses a UK base would give them access to “a single market without barriers — visible or invisible — giving you direct and unhindered access to the purchasing power of more than 300 million of the world’s wealthiest and most prosperous people”.

That’s the offer Margaret Thatcher made when she placed Britain at the front of the queue for investment.

Now, in private, Japanese investors and officials are despairing at the way Mrs Thatcher’s promise has been betrayed. They feel hurt. They feel understandable disdain for the efforts of ministers such as Liam Fox, the minister who backed Brexit and is now begging for a UK-Japan trade deal.

In sorrow, they are also rapidly adjusting their plans for Britain.

Today it’s Honda in Swindon that’s been hit. Tomorrow it will be other workers, in other towns, who thought they had good jobs in strong companies.

“Idiocy of epic proportions”, one Honda employee has called it. His bosses couldn’t have put it better, if they had chosen to spell out the truth.

Wise words on prisons

Twenty years ago today the Macpherson Report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence challenged the way policing worked in London.

It showed the Metropolitan police to be “institutionally racist” and it led to change for the better. But our justice system is still flawed and still needs to be challenged.

So all credit to David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, and his deputy Rory Stewart, in charge of prisons, for standing up for reform, humanity and common sense.

Short sentences don’t work, he has just said in a speech. “Why would we spend taxpayers’ money doing what we know doesn’t work, and indeed, makes us less safe?” We agree. Mr Gauke’s determination is hugely impressive.

London dresses up

London Fashion Week ends tonight. We have seen the latest exciting clothes from the world’s best designers but it is also a reminder of the huge contribution this industry makes to the capital and the country as a whole.

The £30 billion-plus annual contribution to the economy is an obvious boon but so too is the wonderful creativity, diversity and outward-looking spirit that fashion encourages.

We salute all those involved.