I really hope this historic UK company doesn't get swallowed up into a soulless conglomerate.

Kraft’s low-ball offer for Cadbury yesterday may have taken a few people by surprise. However, nobody in their right mind thinks Cadbury has seen the last of Kraft - the tanks aren’t off the lawn yet. In the old days, a knockout blow in the form of an enormous bid would have been on the table by now; General Wasserstein would have been there in his tin hat yelling from the turret, as he led the advance of the squadron of Shermans. But these are more cautious times, and Kraft must be convinced they can acquire Cadbury far more cheaply than in the days of plenty.

What should we wish for as an outcome? If one is being hard-nosed and purist about it, providing Kraft’s price is right, we should not object to the British firm being taken over. If Cadbury was French, it would be an altogether different story. Look at the palaver a few years back when Pepsi began to sniff around Danone, the water and yogurt maker. Danone got itself added to France’s nuclear power industry in a list of enterprises vital to national strategic interests, making it invulnerable to takeover. I’m not for one moment suggesting that our Government should begin behaving in the chauvinist and illegal way that some of our Europeans brethren seem to do with such impunity. I don’t think our national interests will be fatally undermined if the makers of the Curly Wurly aren’t Brits.

But Cadbury forms a key and highly distinguished part of British business tradition. Founded by British quakers it has a noble history of enlightened and philanthropic management, combined with a skill in building highly successful and much loved brands.   However much Kraft protests that this tradition would not be lost after a takeover, this cannot be the case. Kraft is a grinding, anonymous conglomerate.

More broadly, we’ve got to consider what we want to have left in the way of UK business. If we are going to try to redefine our economy then it’s worth trying to establish what we’re good at and is worth preserving. Cadbury won MT’s award for Britain's Most Admired Company back in 2004, but it’s interesting to see how the pool of great UK companies has shrunk even since then. How many more of our scarce tray of crown jewels will we allow to disappear or pass into foreign ownership before we get worried? Before the crash it was highly unfashionable to utter such sentiments. We were believers in letting the market decide - and besides, our great strength in financial services would remedy shortfalls in other areas. You don’t hear that sort of talk much as this decade comes to a close.

So, I make no bones about admitting I hope that Kraft fails. Put the pacifist tendencies of your management forebears to one side and stick it to 'em, Todd. But weep as you sign the enormous defence cheques to your advisors Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS. What a dreadful waste of hard-earned cash.