BRITAIN has always taken a relaxed attitude to foreign ownership.
These days, it is hard to name an iconic British brand not in foreign hands. Think Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Manchester United, Madam Tussauds or The Savoy are British? Then think again.
Even parochial brands like HP Sauce, Harry Ramsden’s and Typhoo Tea are foreign-owned.
Now we can add the name of Cadbury to the list after a sweetened takeover offer from US-giant Kraft proved too tempting to resist.
Would Kraft have had it so easy had Cadbury been French or German? It seems unlikely. Just look the dispute between Renault and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy over where the next Clio should be built.
Renault’s CEO Carlos Ghosn was ordered to a weekend meeting with Sarkozy to assure him Clio production would not be moved to Turkey.
Europe has always adopted a more proprietorial role over “national champions” than the UK.
Free marketeers say that Britain’s laissez faire attitude helps make UK companies more flexible and attractive to foreign investors.
Which is fine in the good times, but when the going gets tough there is a natural inclination to cut jobs far from home.
Does patriotism still have a place in a global economy? Probably not. In the long run the best companies always prosper. As British Leyland proved in the Seventies, eventually even the state has to abandon a lame duck. Strong businesses go on and on.
We have every confidence that Cadbury will still be with us long after the current furore over its ownership is forgotten.
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