I think the perception--here in the US--that England is somewhat backward
economically is due to the dreadful reputation of older British cars (vs.
e.g., Mercedes and BMW). There was a great cartoon years ago in Playboy
magazine: the first British astronauts were about to blast off in their
capsule, and one looked up on the bulkhead, where there was a plaque
affixed reading "Electrics by Lucas".
I had a 1963 MG 1100. Six volts, positive ground, some weird nut system that neither wombat nor metric wrenches would fit. The electric system was always blowing up (including having the electric fuel pump fail, at night, on two different dates, on both the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge); a friend gave me two thoughts on that:
1. "Lucas, Prince of Darkness."
2. "Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, and Lucas invented the dead short."
Carleton
