The report is carefully balanced. On the one hand it is optimistic in noting that Britain's car industry is world class, flexible, productive, and globally competitive and has huge strengths in the premium brand sector. It also has a diverse supply chain.

On the other hand it highlights the severe pressures that the industry is now under and warns of the danger of suppliers going under, of losing research and development, of employment cuts, and knock-on effects elsewhere in the economy.

In particular, the government is pressed to show greater urgency to help the industry, as the industry's long term future is seen as depending on taking the right actions now. This means support for individual firms like Jaguar Land Rover but also the industry as a whole, the committee notes.

The Select Committee, a cross party grouping of MPs, criticised ministers for holding out the possibility of support but not actually delivering it. In particular, the Committee expressed concern about the lack of coherence to government policy and highlighted a series of "shortcomings" in the automotive support package unveiled back in January.

The rise in the broad measure of unemployment - the labour force survey (LFS) - which looks at whether a person is out of work and looking for a job - rose by an unprecedented 281,000 (the biggest quarterly rise ever), bringing this measure of unemployment to around 2.4 million. The West Midlands has been particularly affected, with unemployment at 10.3% the worst in the UK.

That's no surprise as the sectors most badly hit by the recession - auto, manufacturing, property, construction, business services, finance, and retail - account for over a half of the region's economy.

In stark contrast, the claimant count - that is the number of people out of work AND eligible for jobseeker's allowance (JSA) rose by only 24,000 in June to 1.56 million. This was much smaller than expected. The government has also pointed to the fact that Britain's claimant count unemployment rate is 4.8% - half the 9.5% in the Euro zone.

New car sales rose by 2.4% year-on-year in June with some 1.46 million new cars registered in Europe, according to the European Automotive Manufacturers' Association ACEA.

Whilst this is good news, we shouldn't get too carried away. Two things seem to be going on here.

Firstly, sales this time last year nosedived, so we're now comparing this June's figures with truly awful figures a year ago. That's a statistical effect, so let's not get over-excited. What the figures really show is that things are bottoming out at a very low level.

Secondly, what growth we are seeing is being driven by government scrappage schemes. That's good news, of course, in that there is some stabilisation in the market thanks to policy intervention, but when the schemes are phased out one wonders how the car market will hold up.

Magna - backed by Russia's state owned Sberbank and Gaz group - was seen as the preferred bidder by the German government as it offered the prospect of fewer job losses in Germany. The German government has made available a bridging loan of €1.5 billion to keep Opel going.

Just before GM entered bankruptcy, GM Europe (which employs around 55,000 workers), was separated from its US parent and placed in a trust fund. Whether to be able to present a number of potential bids to the trust fund, or whether to drive a better bargain with Magna, GM never signed an exclusivity deal with Magna and has continued to talk to other bidders, notably RHJ International and Beijing Automotive.

Both are thought to have enhanced their offers. Fiat is sitting this out on the sidelines, despite Marchione's desire to build Fiat into a global player.

It used to be said that 'whatever's good for GM is good for the US economy'. Whilst GM is no longer the world's biggest car maker, by some estimates it still accounted for 1% of the US economy before entering Chapter 11. The bankruptcy has been not only hugely symbolic of the fate of the ailing US car industry, but has also been of huge importance for all the workers, suppliers, dealers and creditors caught up in its travails.

Republicans have criticised Obama's handling of the GM affair, but it is difficult to see what else the US President could have done. Obama had to give GM time to come up with a credible plan, and I have always thought that the firm would need up to $50 billion of US state support to get through the downturn and restructuring. That's exactly what has happened.

The 'new GM' that has emerged from Chapter 11 is a smaller and leaner firm which has shed tens of thousands of workers, closed factories, cut loose hundreds of dealerships (further reductions will be needed), ditched several brands, and - with union agreement - revised contracts of employment in order to cut costs.

Rather, it is the workers and their families, who deserve some answers as to what went so wrong at MG Rover under Phoenix's stewardship.

Lord Mandelson's statement earlier this week that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collapse MG Rover back in 2005 did genuinely come as a surprise in that if there were grounds for calling in the SFO, one wonders why it wasn't done much earlier.

However, Mandelson was acting on the advice of government lawyers, and I don't buy the argument that is an attempt to kick the report into 'the long grass' as some on the Tory benches have claimed. In fact, the government has attracted a lot of political flack for doing this.

Rather, it is the workers and their families, who deserve some answers as to what went so wrong at MG Rover under Phoenix's stewardship.

Lord Mandelson's statement earlier this week that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collapse MG Rover back in 2005 did genuinely come as a surprise in that if there were grounds for calling in the SFO, one wonders why it wasn't done much earlier.

However, Mandelson was acting on the advice of government lawyers, and I don't buy the argument that is an attempt to kick the report into 'the long grass' as some on the Tory benches have claimed. In fact, the government has attracted a lot of political flack for doing this.

Local MP Richard Burden who was told that the report has been completed, has quite rightly noted that "like everybody else in the area I have found it incredibly frustrating that we have had to wait so long for this report... so I now hope that the contents of the inquiry will be made available as soon as possible.

"'The escalating cost of the inquiry has also been a matter of real concern to so many people, including me. Hopefully the contents of the report will provide some answers to why it has cost so much and I certainly welcome the government's commitment to try to minimise the cost of any similar inquiries in the future. But the important thing now is to know what the report contains and I hope the government will be able to make a statement on that as soon as possible."

In an answer to a private question by Richard Burden, the business minister Ian Lucas said that in the future the government would carefully consider any similar exercises so as to "minimise" costs.

As Jonathan Walker pointed out in his News blog yesterday, there could be a delay before the report is published as its findings will determine whether any further action is needed. If action is needed, then publication of the report might be considered prejudicial to that action.

Things are further complicated by the fact - as the Birmingham Mail notes today - that the Phoenix Four have said no money pledged to ex-workers from the MG Rover Trust Fund will be paid until the inquiry report is published. The Mail believes that around £16m piled up from the sale of dealerships and the Studley Castle conference centre is stuck in a bank account, delaying potential pay-outs to former employees.

Not surprisingly, given the dire state of the auto industry worldwide, there is plenty of red ink; indeed Tata Motors reported its first annual loss in eight years, a loss of 25.05 billion rupees ($520 million) against a profit of 21.68 billion rupees last year.

JLR itself recorded a net loss of £281 million ($463 million) in the 10 months of the 2009 fiscal year that it has been on Tata's books. That comes after a £327 million operating profit in 2007 and £310 million operating profit in the first half of 2008. Since then conditions have deteriorated and the firm has cut nearly 2000 jobs and brought in special sabbaticals on 80% pay for over 300 hundred staff.

Names in the frame apparently include Malaysian group Westar, Indian group Mahindra and Mahindra, and Chinese car firm Nanjing, which bought Mg Rover's assets before itself being taken over by Shanghai Automotive. Other bidders may yet join the fray. The administrators have stated that there could "be some clarity around this within the next two to three weeks."

Not all bidders would aim to keep production in the UK. Whilst Westar have previously stated that they would aim to retain some production in Birmingham, other bidders may well look for a 'lift and shift' of assets and production out to India or the Far East.

The same cannot be said for the commercial vehicle sector; here production fell by a disastrous 73.5%, with firms lacking the credit and confidence to buy vehicles.

Ever since demand fell off a cliff last autumn when the financial system imploded, car producers have rapidly scaled back output as stocks piled up. Part-time working, lay-offs and lengthy plant shut-downs have been the norm in the industry. With assembly plants shut down or on reduced shifts, the knock-on effect has been felt down the supply chain; the number of jobs lost in the industry runs to 30,000+ even excluding the LDV workers.

Swedish broadcaster SVT has reported that the Swedish luxury super car firm Koenigsegg was planning to buy Saab along with Norwegian investors.

Saab entered 'creditor protection' (a Swedish version of Chapter 11) back in February as GM sought to sell off the loss making brand, and the Swedish firm is trying to cut debts by 75% during this process. Saab confirmed last month that three bidders were interested in Saab and that they expected to complete the sale by the end of June.

Despite the global economic downturn, RR has received 1,500 'serious expressions of interest' in the new Ghost model which is set to be unveiled in September and launched next year. The Ghost model has generated much interest after a prototype has toured the globe. If these expressions of interest were translated into sales they could effectively double RR's annual sales.

It seems that firms - luxury brands included - can (and must) innovate and develop new products for new markets (witness the splendid Jaguar XF as well). In this sense, the new Ghost is critical for RR in extending its product range and moving into new markets. The model will especially aim at a lower price category and hence potential customers who would potentially go for a Bentley Continental Flying Spur instead.

The model could also appeal to the growing numbers of rich people in emerging markets such as Russia and China, even if 'mature' western markets move away from ostentatious displays of wealth, as some seem to suggest will happen post credit-crunch.

Yet that could well change over the next three years unless the UK government steps in, as the seismic changes that have unfolded in the world's auto markets threaten to wipe out mass van production in the UK, leaving only very small niche producers.

At the moment there are three main producers - Ford at Southampton, GM/Renault's joint venture at Luton, and LDV here in Birmingham. The latter has been in suspended animation since December when production was largely stopped as the double whammy of credit crunch and recession impacted.

If current trends continue, all three could effectively have gone by 2012, with all main van demand then having to be met by imports, and with jobs and capacity lost forever.

The key question for the UK government is: does it want a van industry in the UK? If so, it needs to step in with an industrial policy that can make that happen. LDV is a good place to start.

The firm has also swallowed some $20 billion in cash from the Obama administration and is likely to need another $30 billion before emerging from Chapter 11 substantially slimmed down, and free of debts. During Chapter 11, the firm will continue to function and assemble cars, and a judge will make the decisions on who gets what assets.

Whilst the old saying that 'whatever's good for GM is good for the US economy' may no longer be true (if it ever was) and GM is no longer the biggest car maker in the world, by some estimates it still accounts for 1% of the US economy. The bankruptcy then is not only hugely symbolic of the fate of the US car industry, but matters profoundly for the workers, suppliers, dealers and creditors caught up in its travails.