That was the week.

What an interesting week! The Chilcott Enquiry provided the spectacle of ex-ministers wriggling under close questioning about their part in the Iraq War: The board of Cadbury’s lost their battle and became Schhhhaftbury’s. President Obama challenged the powerhouse that put him into the White House to a fight. And last but not least the Government here up-graded the Terror Alert. What next I wonder? 
I watched the proceedings of the Chilcott Enquiry with great interest. Here was the ex-Foreign Secretary struggling desperately to justify his actions at the time of the Iraq War. No one was about to help him spin his contribution now. No PR or marketing guru around to tell him what words to use or when to use them. I felt a bit sorry for him, particularly when I heard him say quietly and almost as if he was thinking aloud, that he wished the enquiry was being held in private. Would his answers have been different? I have a feeling they would. My recollections of that period are that my government was telling me that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that he could use against us within a forty-five minute timespan. I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now. Nor if I read Jack Straw’s body language correctly did he. Yet he still went ahead with his vote in favour! I can’t wait to hear Tony Blair’s submissions.
 
The uproar following the Kraft takeover of Cadburys provided some curious headlines. Senior politicians declaring that they would spare no effort to protect the jobs of the workers of Cadburys. As if they can! If the free market is to continue to operate, businesses will change, merge or fail as the market dictates. In this country we think that Cadbury chocolate is great but in Europe they take a different view. Ask what the Belgians or the Swiss think of the UK product. To them making chocolate is as much an art as a business. As to where it will be made, well that’s anyone’s guess. To my mind a much more important question is what will happen to all the land owned by Cadburys? Will those people housed and “Looked after” by the company continue to enjoy their protected positions? Will the buildings in which the products are made stay in production? The amount of land they own must have a value almost high enough to buy the bank that lent Kraft the money to buy the company. And what will happen to the non-chocolate making parts of the business? Schweppes and all the drinks etc. Perhaps the politicians will do everything in their power to protect those workers too! I shall be very interested to see the changes that will follow the takeover. I bet there will be a break-up of the company as it stands. My fear is that Kraft will alter the recipe of Cadburys and make the chocolate as plastic looking as their cheese
 
Talking of breaking up companies, President Obama’s challenge to the bankers of America is a fascinating development. Is he biting the hand that feeds him? Surely a big proportion of his campaign funds come from that source? I can’t see them welcoming his proposals for change with any degree of enthusiasm. They didn’t sign up to proposals that that will limit their size. Quite the reverse I would have thought. Personally I can’t see why politicians are so concerned about the size of the banks or for that matter any other business. Companies, like countries find their own size. When any organisation becomes too big to manage effectively it explodes and creates a host of smaller operations. There have surely been enough examples of that happening in the world of recent times. The banks are not immune from the same natural forces that govern every other organisation. If they become too big they too will explode. When they were just banks they were very successful, when they began to dabble in the Estate Agency, Insurance, Building Societies, and a multitude of other financial areas, they ran into trouble. And they will do so again unless they remove themselves from areas in which they do not perform well. Just like any other organisation. If I can see that, they surely can. If Governments own large percentages of any company and really do wish to recover the money they paid for the shares in the form of loans from taxpayers, all they have to do is wait until the shares go up in value and then sell them. They might even make a profit. Though I suppose that’s highly unlikely when you consider that most politicians have never been in business. Their main task in life seems to be to criticise those that are. Will the President’s actions affect our stock market? Of course it will but not necessarily in an adverse way. Perhaps their bankers will do what ours are always threatening to do. Leave and find another place to get to the size they want to be…. London?
 
Last week I wrote about marketing bad news……On Friday they up-graded the Terror Alert. They aren’t saying a terror attack is going to happen just that one might…It might be worth watching the inside pages next week rather than the headlines.