“Our companies have become chips in the stock market casino.” That’s the gist of Will Hutton’s heartfelt polemic here. He points to the once-great pillars of Britain’s industrial landscape, from ICI to Cadbury via car-makers such as MG and Land Rover, which have all been sold to overseas owners. How does this happen?
Because, he argues, our “open for business” culture means we allow foreign takeovers no other country would countenance. And those who benefit from the wheeler-dealing – the bankers, lawyers and acountants of the City – have the ear of government. And the next British sector ripe for losing its identity to foreign ownership? Yes, it’s television.
Will Hutton presents an impassioned argument on the British economy, claiming that business leaders and politicians are selling off some of the nation's best companies for quick and easy profits, and that this is creating a dumbed-down, low-wage Britain. He reveals that in the past 10 years, £440billion of British firms have been sold to new overseas owners, illustrating a radical view of the economy that MPs rarely talk about, ranging from the takeover of Cadbury to the foreign-owned Thames Water.
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