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She\’s only telling the truth

Ms Rosenfeld, who was paid $19.3m (£11.7m) last year, repeatedly refused to attend hearings of the Business, Innovations and Skills Committee to answer questions on the £11.5bn acquisition. MPs hoped to question Ms Rosenfeld about the U-turn which led to Kraft closing Cadbury\’s Somerdale factory.

Writing in Bloomberg Businessweek, Ms Rosenfeld said: \”I\’ve spent a lot of time in the UK with the folks that really matter to me. Appearing before the panel was not the best use of my personal time.\”

Well, yes, what would you prefer to do? Take the kiddies to the zoo or appear before the insufferably pompous twits that get themselves elected?

\”The manner of her repeated refusal to appear before a committee of Parliament demonstrates a regrettably dismissive attitude to a National Parliament,\” the MPs said.

But why should anyone not be dismissive of Westminster? All the power to decide upon takeovers has been passed to Brussels.

There isn\’t anything, either way, that the Committee could do. Either Kraft obeyed the law, in which case bugger off maties, or they didn\’t in which case the courts will be after them.

You\’re powerless: so why should anyone bother to turn up?

9 thoughts on “She\’s only telling the truth”

  1. Of course she’s telling the truth.So were all those dreadful lefties who questioned whether the Kraft takeover was entirely in the British interest (including belatedly the Conservative MP Brian Binley who heads soem kind of Tory outfit on competition!)And there’s you and everyone from the public school well-funded right saying international free trade in everything is absolutely wonderful and lets not worry our tiny heads .Free Trade : Cuts down on thinking!

  2. @DBC

    However, I believe Cadbury’s had already decided to close Somerdale well before the Kraft offer. Indeed, they had moved some of the critical equipment to Poland and taken the EU bribe (sorry grant) to do so.

    From what I read at the time, Kraft we’re in no position to reverse the operational decision made by Cadbury’s once they took over.

  3. The Committee is powerless in the sense of being able to do anything useful, but I thought Commons Committees did have power of subpoena. So if they really wanted her to attend, they just have to insist.

  4. Binley is my MP. Useless twat. Told the Guardian he’s “lost faith in international capitalism” over this chocolate factory rubbish.

    Historical factoid: English chocolate industry was set up as a front for the Quakers, hence the hand-wringing over a chocolate factory.

    Yes DBC Reed, let’s not have that nasty international trade. Let’s all eat turnips. And not, er, chocolate, which is made with evil foreign cocoa beans.

  5. DBC Reed,

    So were all those dreadful lefties who questioned whether the Kraft takeover was entirely in the British interest

    What’s it got to do with Britain? It’s a private company, owned by shareholders, and hardly something essential like water, electricity or munitions.

    /comprehensive boy

  6. If she has done anything wrong then answering questions from a HoC committee might , just possibly, reveal that: on the other hand if she’s got to the top of a major US company, is it likely that she will suddenly break down and confess all when faced with a handful of middle-aged British guys?
    IMHO, her refusal to attend the HoC committee does far more for Kraft’s reputation than anything she colud have been forced to say if she had agreed.

  7. @IB
    Brian Binley appears to be an old-fashioned One Nation Tory so his confession that he was losing faith in international capitalism over the Krafft affair (to David Hare the right-on playwright in The Guardian!) is about par for the course.
    Obviously there is no place in modern right-wing politics for somebody who sees some point in the mixed economy.
    He is the most eloquent supporter of council housing I have ever come across in the course of lobbying for leftish causes. And in general one of the most quick-witted and open-minded MP’s .
    Nobody is complaining about international trade: just that monopolies and cartels can result in the close down of factories .However building up monopolies and closing down working-class jobs in favour of “financial services “in the the City (full of public-school unemployables)is par for the very different course the extreme Ayn Rand type Right plays over.

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