A deal to rescue the British carmaker, MG Rover has collapsed. Rover's management had been negotiating with China's biggest carmaker, Shanghai Automotive, for it to take over the company. This report from Rebecca Pike:

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As well as six thousand people employed directly by MG Rover, some fifteen thousand employees of component suppliers in the West Midlands will also be affected. Earlier today, some of those companies said Rover hadn’t been able to pay them, so they'd been forced to stop supplying parts. Production at Longbridge was halted as a result.

The government is acutely aware of the impact this could have on a number of marginal West Midlands constituencies. Tony Blair spent twenty five minutes on the phone to the president of China last night trying to persuade him to rescue the deal. But with both sides blaming the other for failing to commit, it was only a matter of time before the whole thing began to unravel.

Rebecca Pike, London

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critical levels
very dangerous levels, at a point where something important will happen for good or for bad

crisis talks
discussions to try to avoid something bad happening

last hope
only chance left

in principle
in general but not in detail

bridging loan
money given on a temporary basis because the person or company is waiting to make some money, for example from a sale

tantamount
having the same effect as

throwing good money after bad
to throw good money after bad - an idiom, meaning to spend more money on something which has already failed, to waste money

acutely aware
knowing or noticing something very strongly

failing to commit
to fail to commit - not to make a positive decision

to unravel
here, to collapse, to fail