Moreover, the attractions which first brought Nissan to the UK in 1984 – language, social costs, flexible labour markets, low corporate taxes and golf courses – are still here and in some respects are an even more powerful draw now than they were then.When Nissan decided to commit to the long-term future of Sunderland by keeping the Micra here, it did so on the implicit understanding that before long it would be building cars in the same currency as it sold them Two years on, the Government has yet to deliver. Now Mr Ghosn is upping the ante once more with his most explicit hint yet that without the euro, there will be no further model replacements for Sunderland.Inward investors, for all their high-profile investments, still make up only a tiny fraction of the UK’s manufacturing base. The plant’s extraordinary productivity record in combination with a large Government bung eventually persuaded it to stay. Mr Ghosn’s ruthless cost-cutting in Japan has turned Nissan back into profit, but in the UK the story is one of continuing losses, despite Sunderland’s reputation as Europe’s most efficient car plant.Two years ago, Nissan very nearly pulled the plug on Sunderland by threatening to switch production of the new Micra to France. Its Sunderland plant exports eight in every 10 cars it produces, almost all of them to the eurozone. Then again, the company in question happens to be Nissan, the UK’s biggest Japanese inward investor, which obviously has a vested interest in whether the pound becomes part of the single European currency.Nissan has been here longer than any other Japanese car manufacturer and is more exposed to the pound/euro exchange rate than any of its counterparts.

Lord Burns must give Mr Soden the chance to put his case, but in the end he might find it less complicated and ultimately of more value to his shareholders simply to find a decent chief executive.Nissan/euroCarlos Ghosn is a Frenchman born in Brazil who runs a Japanese company, which certainly makes him a polyglot but hardly qualifies him to pontificate on whether Britain should join the euro. Royal Bank of Scotland managed to acquire the much larger National Westminster Bank, but in that case the potential for cost cutting was much greater and the RBS management team of Sir George Mathewson and Fred “The Shred” Goodwin, was a more formidable and proven one. The new bank would have its primary listing in London but would be domiciled in Ireland and run from Dublin.It’s not impossible. The Irish and British markets are fundamentally different.As it happens, Mr Soden is not proposing a merger of equals, but rather a full-scale takeover bid, leaving no room for compromise on management, domicile, supervision or any of the other issues that undermined a similar attempt to merge with Alliance & Leicester a few years back. What would be the sense of merging with Bank of Ireland? There would be some limited cost-cutting potential to be gained by folding Bank of Ireland’s Bristol & West mortgage book into Abbey National’s, but there is not much overlap elsewhere.Bank of Ireland boasts strengths in wholesale banking and success in cross selling of financial products, but we’ve heard such claims before and in practice it is hugely difficult to duplicate cross-selling success between different countries. This is not the moment to be dashing into marriage with the first offer that comes through the door.The other is that Bank of Ireland is a fair bit smaller than Abbey National, both in terms of market capitalisation and balance sheet assets.

Why won’t they talk to us? The most obvious reason is that having recently fired Ian Harley, Abbey doesn’t have a chief executive and although Lord Burns is doing a sterling job holding the bridge, the ship is vulnerable and rudderless. Almost total radio silence even after yesterday’s statement confirming planted weekend reports that he’s interested in bidding.We’ve got lots to offer, he insists. Three weeks ago he approached Abbey National to suggest the two talk turkey Since then he’s hardly heard a dicky bird. Perhaps his time has finally come.Abbey NationalMichael Soden, chief executive of Bank of Ireland, is feeling more than a little put out. Many thought him the right man for the job when Mr Cruickshank got it. It is for someone else to do the next phase.Step forward Sir Brian Williamson, who managed to sell Liffe to Euronext for a packet and must now find himself at something of a loose end. With the battles in Europe for single, low-cost settlement and clearing mechanisms still to come, it seemed like the right moment to go He’s done the transitional bit.