The double-decker bus is as British an institution as fish and chips or cricket, and, as the Empire expanded, so did the market for these peculiarly British products. Today, the United Kingdom satisfies 90 per cent of the world's demand for double-decker buses. But, as the world energy crisis expands, Britain's supremacy in the market is under threat. At home, Government policy looks set to reduce demand for new double-deckers and whilst British manufacturers work out how to handle that crisis foreign manufacturers are gearing up to challenge us in the rest of the world. Confident that everyone needs more rather than fewer double-deckers, both the Swedes and the Germans are even developing plans to bring their double-deckers to Britain. Judith Hann and Michael Rodd investigate why Britain's new generation of super double-deckers face problems, report on the new tactics of our foreign competitors and meet the British bus operators who say they may have to buy foreign to ' gee up our own