Lord Mandelson to meet City bigwigs this week
Despite the fact that the UK government has demonised the UK banking sector, Lord Mandelson is this week expected to ask for assistance in protecting UK companies from overseas predators. The Cadbury/Kraft Foods saga appears to have hit a nerve with the UK government although there are accusations of opportunism and the chance to curry favour with UK voters.
The very fact that the UK government is effectively asking institutional investors to put the protection of UK companies before investment returns, in what is a free market, is rather absurd. While there is no doubt we should offer protection to some of our better-known companies we cannot expect to operate in a worldwide free-market while reducing that freedom within the UK.
It is also worth remembering that the UK government has sold off shares in various utility companies to overseas predators purely and simply to increase government coffers. However, now that there is a growing concern about overseas predators attacking UK companies (predominantly because of the weakness in sterling) it seems that the UK government has conveniently forgotten its own role in selling off the UK silver. Whether institutional investors will come to the aid of the government and react positively to Lord Mandelson's suggestion remains to be seen.
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