Vilvoorde, Ryton, Cádiz. All three are emotive names in the car industry. They were three of the few factories to be closed in western Europe in recent years. And not surprisingly, when looking at the ruckus over where the Opel-Vauxhall job cuts will fall, they were based in Belgium, the UK and Spain, respectively.

All three countries have always looked like being losers from the current downturn in the car industry. All three lack a big domestic car manufacturer, which Germany, France and Italy all have. That means that when cuts do come they tend to hit “neutral” countries such as the UK, Belgium and Spain disproportionately hard, even without the sweeteners the German government is offering for Opel.