Labour's "Cadbury law" - another stinker from the Brown bunker

According to the BBC, Labour is to propose a "Cadbury's law" in its manifesto, restricting takeovers of British firms on "public interest grounds".

The report says that the manifesto is to contain proposals to ensure that if a company is designated "strategic", or if the national interest is concerned (i.e. the Government of the day thinks that intervention will be popular), two-thirds of its shareholders will have to vote yes to a takeover.

This is another piece of economic illiteracy by Labour and its chums in the Lib-Dems. If political interference is allowed to dictate whether acquisitions can go ahead, owners of companies will be prevented from achieving a fair value for their shares. A big proportion of the owners of companies are the pension funds. These have already been devastated by the removal of the dividend tax credit, weakened by raids from the Pension Protection Fund, and softened further by the recession fuelled by Labour's boom-to-bust policies.

This proposal is another stinker from the bunker of Brown's zombie administration. Let's hope it doesn't happen.