With General Motors (who own Vauxhall and Opel), Ford, Chrysler, Jaguar/Land Rover (owned by the Chinese company, Tata) all coming cap in hand to our governments, do they deserve to be given our money? In a word, no.

I am tired of this talk of bailouts. These companies have been unprofitable for years. They have had plenty of time to change their ways. The banks have given them so much rope, that they are hanging themselves, now that a recession is upon us. These companies have essentially been on life support for all of this time. Meanwhile, their directors and board members swaned about, spending money they didn't have. The big three US car company CEOs even arrived in private jets for their bailout meeting! What planet are these people on?

Ford, in its belated wisdom, sold off Jaguar and Land Rover. With Jaguar, the brand is still held in high regard and their two new models have been well received. However, luxury marques on brand new cars are not what people want during a recession, especially one triggered by a tightening of credit. Ford were probably wise to sell them off before this economic chaos ensued, but they had sunk a lot of money into R&D, only to miss out on the benefits.

Land Rover, on the other hand, seem to have been working within a declining segment. They build big, inefficient cars, to carry big, fat arsed, business people around. Once the preserve of farmers, Land Rovers seem to have evolved into a car for snobs. The "I'm looking down at your little car" mentality suited those who benefited from the boom times well. Now the bust has arrived, Land Rover better hope that their old market still loves them. The now penniless property developers certainly won't be buying them in droves!

As the UK sold off Jaguar and Land Rover years ago, you would have thought any talk of a bailout would be laughed back at; WRONG - our government thinks throwing money at dying car companies is the way forward. They are not even UK companies! Tata bought these companies, with their eyes open. A cynical mind might consider that Tata is just looking for any excuse to withdraw from UK manufacturing and move it to India, where it's cheaper. If they're going to do this anyway, they may as well chance their arm and get some cheap bailout money too!

'It's about the jobs' they say. I'm all for keeping people in jobs, but why not invest in new up and coming companies, rather than these foreign, ageing, behemoths? We have a wealth of talent in the UK, desperately trying to do well on an economic stage. If it wasn't hard enough, in wade the government to give their competitors big wads of cash.

So, it looks like the US 'big three' are going to get their money. At least they are US owned companies and therefore they will be trying to save one of their own! They are being told that if they don't spend it wisely, they'll have to give it back. Eh? Forgive my ignorance, but if the money has been spent and the companies are still failing, then where is the money going to come from to pay the loans back? Is the US government saying that it will have first dibs on liquidation money at the expense of all the other creditors? Is it just a smoke screen to try to reassure people the money isn't a bailout? I'd rather hope it is the latter, even if it's deceitful, as their suppliers will be in big enough trouble as it is. I am grateful for the US government keeping Vauxhall employees in a job, though. Thanks, Unkle Sam!

For those who think that it's hard for all car companies, just look around. All of Germany's car companies seem to be doing fine, despite figures worsening. The big Japanese companies are hunkering down for a long recession, cutting costs and preparing for the worst. I'm sure the new comers, such as Kia, are revelling in the thought that car snobs may soon be considering buying one of their cars. There is a pattern to this; those companies who were struggling before the recession kicked in and now starting to fail. Is it really any surprise? They weren't working in the boom times, so how were they going to function in the bust times?

With each day I get ever more angry and frustrated with the direction of the US and UK governments. The first, is out of my sphere of influence, but the sooner these muppets in control over here realise and admit that we're in the brown stuff (excuse the pun!), the better. We should be planning for the worst. Thinking long term. Investing in the future. The level of short-termism is incredibly disheartening and I believe they are damaging both companies and individuals by living in some deluded, dream world. If this is the worst economic crisis since the second world war, it's high time they stopped treating it like a 'blip' that they can borrow through, came clean and started reforming the country for the future.