Kraft's takeover of Cadbury

8.00.00pm GMT Tue 26th Jan 2010

Letter to the Bristol Evening Post, published 23rd Jan.

Lord Mandleson is correct to say (EP Friday 22nd Jan) that the Government can not interfere in the takeover of one private company by another, as in the case of Kraft's takeover of Cadbury.

Yet neither he nor the Government has answered the question put to them by Nick Clegg MP, the leader of the Liberal Democrats - which is why the Royal Bank of Scotland is lending the money to Kraft to help finance this takeover.

This is, of course, the bank almost entirely owned by UK taxpayers. It should not be lending the money for this.

No doubt Kraft would find the money elsewhere, but this episode is systematic of the Government's failure to regulate the banks since many of them came into effective national ownership.

When British taxpayers bailed out the banks, they would never have believed that their money would now be used to put British people out of work. That is the issue that Lord Mandleson and his colleagues must address.