WE hope that the deal between British Aerospace and the French defence group Matra Hachette, will prove successful.

Workers at BAe are understandably cautious about the French merger. People at a factory which employed 4,000 people in 1980 and which will a workforce of 500 by the end of the year are bound to be circumspect. We wish them well.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.