| So where does this all leave us.
Tamworth it appears is now famous for amongst other things, the Tamworth Pig, The Modern Day Police Force and the Reliant Robin. In the UK the Reliant Robin is seen by many 4-wheeler drivers as a vehicle they would never drive, and despite being amazingly clean animals pigs are often thought of as dirty greedy animals. In our every day speech many of us at some time or another refer to the stereotypical habit of pigs. For example, "I had a flat tyre last night and it was a pig to change" or "Have you come out of that piggin bathroom room yet?" or even, "Don't eat all that you pig". So, as the Reliant Robin is made from Glass fibre, some how both the Tamworth Pig and Reliant Robin have been merged as one to form the "Plastic Pig".
That seems one logical explanation so I guess you are wondering now where the Police come into this. As mentioned the Police Force (as we know it) was created by Sir Robert Peel and we know Sir Robert Peel liked Pigs. Could this also be why in many of the older Police Dramas on the television that the Police are often referred to as "Pigs" or the "filth".
Maybe the Police Force have suffered the same wrath as the Reliant Robin. Two Tamworth products, Police and Pigs, combined together to be simply, "Pigs". Whilst this theory of the Plastic Pig may appear to work the question remains, why wasn't the Reliant Regal, the most sold 3-wheeler of all time, dubbed with the same label? Reliant have been making 3-wheelers since 1935 and Tamworth Pigs
first existed from 1809 so why wait until 1973 when the Robin was introduced? A friend of mine, Malcolm Norris, runs the Reliants web site and he informs me that perhaps it didn't! Malcolm told me that prior to the Robin the Staffordshire Police Force in the late 1960's had a small fleet of Reliant Regals that were apparently "Pigs" to drive. It's possible therefore that the term "Plastic Pig" may well have started here. We now have Police men, driving Reliant Regals. As we have discussed, Police men were often referred to by some as "Pigs" and so a Police man driving a "Reliant Regal" may have possibly earned the Reliant the tag, "Plastic Pig". But then perhaps the Police Force them selves daubed the vehicle a "Plastic Pig" as some of them thought they were "pigs" to drive. (Could the term "Road Hog" creep in anywhere here?)
What ever the theory it seems apparent that the term "Plastic Pig" has possibly been created from three main Tamworth elements; the Tamworth Pig, The Metropolitan Police Force and the Reliant 3-Wheeler. Who knows had Sir Robert Peel took a liking to Goats and imported them instead we would be calling the Robin, "A plastic Goat"!!! Elvis Payne: Copyright Nov 2000.
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