Newspaper headlines — if anyone still reads them — used to be about serious things such as the weather, a shortage of unnecessary flu vaccines, The X Factor, etc.
But we’ve moved on. Now, despite the world’s problems, chocolate has taken pole position. We’re all worried about Cadbury’s. Or rather we were.
So have I missed something? Since when did chocolate become such a strategic industry? I mean, I’m keen on the odd Family Fruit and Nut bar. I’ll even do a Flake or a Curly Wurly from time to time. But do I really see much to defend in a comfort food manufacturer?![images[1]](http://blogs.chemistrygroup.co.uk/newbusiness/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/images1.jpg "images[1]")
With all due respect to Charlie and Roald Dahl, I’m afraid I don’t. Does that make me feel ‘unpatriotic’…should I be taken to task for being so dismissive of one of England’s great institutions that boasts a 186 year heritage? No. Here’s why.
The meltdown at Cadbury’s wouldn’t have happened if the owners and shareholders of the company hadn’t wanted it to happen. Hadn’t wanted to sell out. Whatever they said, they didn’t care about heritage. Ditto national pride. They certainly didn’t care, either, about the potential impact of unemployment in Bournville.
Nope. They wanted to creme it. To make a stonking profit. Is there anything wrong in that? No. After all, what’s the point of being business if not make a profit? With the exception of greedy bankers and Fred the Shred, that’s all right with me!
And so long as it’s our chocolate that’s falling into the hand of rapacious foreign predators and not our auto industry, aircraft manufacturing, missile technology, electronic and engineering skills, or our exporting capabilities, that’s fine. Come to think of it, hasn’t that last lot actually all disappeared already?
I guess it would be different had I lived in Belgium. Or even Switzerland. No offence, but I mean they run economies based largely on chocolate, don’t they? OK…maybe a little bit of banking and some United Nations business, too. But with chocolate ownership gone from England, I can still sleep soundly.
