Lord Mandelson recently threw the spotlight once more on the Cadbury-Kraft deal and the role of shareholders. Are they too focused on short-term returns, acting as absentee landlords, with no commitment to the long-term strategy of the companies they invest in? And can the market provide sufficient safeguards for the national interest?

Setting aside the debate about the Britishness of a company three quarters of whose employees and sales, not to mention 70% of its shareholders, are outside the UK, it highlights some points about today's world.