When I was putting things back together two of the purple wires from the ignition got caught under the screw holding the cowl over the steering column (the screw pulled through) and got crushed and shorted. This blew the 15A accessory fuse (and a few more while I tried to figure out what was happening) but once I repaired the wires (checked continuity and taped them for now) now all kinds of insanity is happening.
When I try to start I don't get a starter, I get flashing lights, honking, and general erratic behaviour to the point I can't work on it any more tonight without really annoying my neighbours. I'm assuming it thinks I was trying to bypass the imobilizer or something and has gone into some strange 'mode' but what can I do about it to get back on the road? Please help.

 

Not being a Rover expert, only one simple idea comes to mind. It's a long shot but you might try pulling the negative terminal on the battery overnight and see if that resets the system.

Dave

 

It seems just waiting until morning cleared whatever it was. Boy this isn't comforting.

 

OK, that's it. Once I get a new house with more garage space I'm buying a Series 3, a Defender 110 in the UK and a galvanized Defender Chassis in Canada and a good sized Diesel engine and building something from the ground up without all the computers. This is just nuts.