I like a bit of Milk Tray or Fruit & Nut now and then. But perhaps not for much longer. On Tuesday, we found that another British institution had been sold off to foreigners. Cadburys was taken over by American soft soapy cheese maker, Kraft. It has to be admitted that Cadburys long ago ceased to be the public spirited company owned by the Quaker philanthropists who built Bournville. The CEO is an American with 27 years of service, who will lose his job when the Kraft men move in. But in spite of the changes that have taken place over the years, Bournville still exists and there are many workers whose parents, grand-parents and great-grand-parents worked in the factory. Some of them will lose their jobs. Indeed, in the fullness of time, they may all lose their jobs. Kraft has form. They took over the Terrys factory in York in 1993 and then slowly moved all the manufacturing to Poland and the Czech Republic. All that remained were the names of the products. It is difficult to get too worked up about a bar of chocolate even if the British do have a penchant for consuming the stuff. But it is the principle. Here was a successful British company with 45,000 employees world-wide and now it is owned by someone else in a foreign country who cares not one jot about the workers in Bournville or about UK plc.
It is something we have been doing for the last 30 years or so - selling off the family silver to anyone who comes along with a big enough bundle of cash. Actually, in this case, they didn't actually have a bundle of cash at all. They borrowed £7 billion to buy the business. And just to rub out noses in it, it was state owned Royal Bank of Scotland that facilitated the deal and will, of course, generate lots of cash to pay the salaries and bonuses of the investment bankers. Of course, a few hedge fund managers will do well out of the deal as well.
These lucrative wheeler-dealer sales are a speciality of unregulated City of London. Selling off blue chip companies is much more difficult in most other countries - including the USA.
Will we ever draw a line in the sand? Already, there is very little left. Since the days of Margaret Thatcher we have been selling our heritage and there is still no one in government who is likely to suddenly say "No!"
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These lucrative wheeler-dealer sales are a speciality of unregulated City of London. Selling off blue chip companies is much more difficult in most other countries - including the USA.
Will we ever draw a line in the sand? Already, there is very little left. Since the days of Margaret Thatcher we have been selling our heritage and there is still no one in government who is likely to suddenly say "No!"
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