Nearly five months on and we are still waiting, waiting for news about what Nanjing Automobile plans to do with Longbridge.

Doubts continue to grow whether the Chinese can return any form of mass production to the former MG Rover site, or if they even want to.

They are now searching for a business partner to develop new models. Erm, haven't we heard this somewhere before?

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It was, after all, the failure of the Phoenix Four to secure a partner that triggered the ultimate collapse.

Meanwhile the days keep marching on and the machinery keeps being lifted out and taken to the Far East.

But why should we care - they always said they were going to take some of it out and build much of the cars in China anyway?

And the Midlands has moved on with many of the workers finding new jobs.

But think about the timing - it only took six months to move the Rover 75 production line from the factory at Cowley to Longbridge when BMW pulled out in 2000.

Jaguar took even less time to move the XJ and XK lines from the Browns Lane plant in Coventry to Castle Bromwich, so get ready for more bad news.

The lack of transparency from Nanjing is becoming alarming. They claim to be working on a business plan but surely no one spends £53 million on something without having some idea what they are going to do with it. We hear much about the different cultures between the Chinese and British and how they don't really understand the public's need for news about what is going on. Ultimately Nanjing is a business, albeit in a state run command economy situation, and when it comes to them still deciding what to do, well I just don't buy it.

So far we have been strung along while they dismember the factory and then move on.

I suppose it is their company now and they can do what they like with it, but people don't like being taken for mugs.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson is too wily a politician to stake his reputation on a return of production at Longbridge - and after all, why should he?

Like all of us, he would like to see something happen and quickly so this ongoing farce can be put to an end.

The fear when Nanjing bought Rover in July was that it was just too small to pull off a rebirth of the company in the ferociously competitive automotive market.

The other bidder - SAIC - was much bigger but offered less money, while the plan of the other runner, Project Kimber, was nowhere near as well advanced. The administrators' task was to raise the most they could for the creditors - a duty they met when they chose Nanjing.

Now we have a company which at the most benign level is way out of its depth, or, if you want to be cynical, one whose sole intention was only ever a lift and shift.

As Mr Johnson said: "Nanjing has said some cars will be built in China and the Rover 75 will still be built at Longbridge.

"If they can get a partner they will develop new models. That is their plan. But I would not say I am entirely confident." Neither am I.