Now I was brought up just a few miles downwind of the Mars factory in Slough and was, as a teenager, possibly overly mesmerised by the imagery associated with the Cadbury’s Flake adverts. Chocolate continues to be a part of my life - I wish it wasn’t so, but it is. However, news of the Cadbury takeover by the American food giant Kraft, whilst probably unwelcome for the 5,600 UK and Irish staff should not have come as a complete surprise. I doubt if too many of the shareholders and investors are likely to lose a night’s sleep over the end of the fine Quaker heritage that defined this most excellent of British confectioners. Afterall many of them have made a nice killing, seeing their share prices rise from 554p in July to the 840p paid this week by Kraft.

Not to mention the hefty pile of loot, estimated at £12 million, that Chief Executive Todd Stitzer will be trousering as a result of this revolting rush for short term profits to satisfy the greed of even shorter term investors. As ever, the demands of the shareholders come before the interests of the employees whose work and loyalty have sustained this company since 1879. What a shame the long term investors such as Legal and General, Standard Life or, dare I suggest, even the workers themselves can’t be given an enhanced voting strength when it comes to takeovers.

What sticks in the throats of my, mostly Labour, colleagues in Parliament whose constituents are most affected by these events is the involvement of the part nationalised RBS in helping to finance the Kraft bid. For more on this check out the excellent piece by Lynne Jones MP for Birmingham Selly Oak over at Comment is Free.

That said, all the howls of protest, and even the involvement of the noble Lord Mandelson and the descendants of George Cadbury himself are unlikely to change the outcome. Global capitalism - don’t you just love it?