ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation's (IRC's) involvement with Rolls-Royce (RR). The crash of RR was one of the most sensational in the history of British industry. It provided a rare occasion when a business story hit the front page of newspapers and stayed there for days if not weeks. The Tory ministers learned of the impending RR disaster at the same time that the fate of the IRC was being decided and the two things became linked in many minds, although the IRC was already doomed. The first was that after the election Edward Heath had phoned Villiers to ask about RR and had received the reply, 'The IRC has lent them £10 million and everything is all right'. The second was that the IRC investigation of RR had consisted only of sending one of its young executives to Derby for a day, after which they lent the company £20 million.
