Eighty years ago car dealers fight the spivs

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The British motor trade recognised government concern at what was happening in the car market. Anyone lucky enough to receive one of the few new cars being produced could immediately resell it at a higher price, making a large profit. It was a goldmine for spivs as participants in the informal parallel economy created by massive government regulation came to be called. To ward off formal government regulation the industry trade association instituted a scheme under which buyers signed a formal agreement  to hold onto new cars for six months.

 The Soviet Union launched a full-scale attempt to take control of the Dardanelles. Turkey had consistently refused passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean to Soviet warships and now Moscow demanded that control of the straits  should be exercised internationally, in practice dominated by the Soviets. The US detected that the ultimate Soviet goal was the full subjugation of Turkey and prepared to resist.

Gas supply workers in London began a strike for higher pay. At that time gas was produced from coal in a large-scale industrial process and was vulnerable to disruption or complete stoppage. Consumers immediately began to suffer a drop in pressure.


 

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