Page 16 Daily Mail, Thursday, August 8, 2019COMMENT
Why Labour is the real
threat to the Union
IS there anything Labour wouldn’t
sacrifice to get their grasping hands on
the levers of power?
Certainly, we now know they’d allow the
the United Kingdom to be destroyed, if it
helped propel Jeremy Corbyn and his
comrades into Downing Street.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s
announcement that Labour will no longer
try to block a second Scottish referendum
was a body blow to all Unionists – especially
angry Labour MPs north of the border,
who feel utterly betrayed by this abrupt
policy reversal.
At a stroke, their ability to challenge the
Scottish National Party over its Gadarene
rush for independence has been shattered.
Mr McDonnell’s language was telling. The
‘English parliament’, he said, doesn’t have
the right to defy the will of the Scottish
people, if they vote for another plebiscite.
English parliament? He meant
Westminster of course – the parliament of
the United Kingdom. But this was more
than just a slip of the tongue.
It feeds into the resentful narrative of
Scottish nationalists, who see themselves
as being ruled by England, rather than
partners in the most successful political
union the world has ever known. To them
Westminster epitomises their subservience.
Northern Irish nationalists harbour a
similar grievance, so naturally Mr
McDonnell also sides with them, saying he
‘longs for’ a United Ireland.
Would there be anything left of the Union
if he had his way? Would Wales be next to
go? Cornwall perhaps?
It’s easy to see Labour’s motive for
sucking up to the Scottish Nationalists.
They have little or no chance of forming a
majority government after the next
election, but with SNP support, they just
might cobble together a shabby coalition.
The price would inevitably be a second
independence referendum and it is for this
that Mr McDonnell is laying the ground.
The irony is that if Scotland did secede –
giving up its 59 Westminster seats – Labour
would probably never taste power again.
Even after the Corbyn surge and Lib Dem
collapse in 2017, they were still 70 seats
behind the Tories in England. That gap is
only likely to widen.
But Mr McDonnell and Mr Corbyn are
not interested in the long-term. They want
power at any cost – regardless of the
collateral damage to party or nation.
Who’d have thought the party that idolises
Keir Hardie, Ramsay MacDonald, and John
Smith would so cynically and casually
abandon the country of their birth?Taking fees for failure
UNDER-FIRE executives at financial
services firm Hargreaves Lansdown have
been shamed into surrendering £3.6 million
in bonuses over their role in the Neil
Woodford fiasco.
They have also profusely apologised to
clients in ‘recognition of the impact’ Mr
Woodford’s fund closure has had on them.
The firm was once the tarnished
investment star’s biggest supporter. Now it
expresses ‘disappointment and frustration’
that he’s blocking withdrawals from his
stricken Equity Income Fund following an
extended period of underperformance.
Yet since that fund was closed, Mr
Woodford has still been raking in £100,
per working day in fees. Hargreaves
Lansdown bosses have done the decent
thing. If he has any conscience, Mr Woodford
will follow suit and drop these thoroughly
undeserved charges.÷
IN his autobiography Wayne Rooney
condemned his own gambling habit as
‘stupid’. Yet at his new club Derby County,
he agrees to wear a shirt with the number
32 on the back, promoting the betting firm
32Red. As a role model to countless young
football fans, shouldn’t he of all people be
warning of the dangers of gambling, rather
than endorsing it as a harmless pursuit?CITY EDITORby Alex
Brummer
A
N ESTIMATED
one million
people watched
as an intrepid
aviator landed
his plane on the River
Thames in 1926, having
travelled to London ‘by
way of Australia’.
Alan Cobham was rewarded
with a knighthood from
George V, set up an aerospace
and defence group and is
believed to have been a
model for the fictional
character Biggles.
Today, almost 100 years later,
the opening pages of the
annual report for thriving
Dorset-based company
Cobham capture that exhila-
rating sense of derring-do as
well as more recent space
missions to the Moon, Mars
and beyond.
The firm is at the heart of a
UK aerospace sector recog-
nised globally for its avionics,
technological expertise and
innovation — and, particularly,
its mid-flight refuelling
systems. From America’s F-
fighter jets to Airbus airliners,
there is scarcely an aircraft not
fitted with equipment invented
or designed by Cobham.Vital
But the company’s future is
under serious threat after a
£4 billion bid from a U.S.
private equity consortium.
It is an issue of huge national
importance, at a time when
Brexit is in the balance and
Britain’s industrial future is
said to be in jeopardy.
Crucially, all major analysis of
this country’s competitiveness
shows that aerospace, finance,
pharmaceuticals and the crea-
tive industries ought to be vital
drivers of Britain’s prosperity.
Cobham holds a special place
in this pantheon.
The firm was launched by
Alan Cobham, an RAF ace
pilot, when, eight years after
landing on the Thames, he
founded Flight Refuelling in
Sussex, facilitating the first
non-stop flights across the
Atlantic on the eve of
World War II.
Cobham’s air-to-air refuelling
equipment was integral during
the Falklands War.
Recently, the company has
had its troubles. But because
of its key role in the aerospace
industry and the value of its
patents, research, develop-
ment and science, investors
injected £500 million of newcapital two years ago. Now, the
£4 billion takeover bid will test
the Johnson government’s
willingness to protect this
jewel in Britain’s industrial
crown from a foreign predator.
At a moment when confi-
dence in the pound is low and
share prices on the London
Stock Exchange lag behind
other major markets because
of Brexit uncertainty, private
equity fund Advent has
pounced. It has reached a
closed-door agreement with a
spineless Cobham board.
The proposed deal is
hitting heavy turbulence. The
company’s biggest investor
opposes it. But most signifi-
cantly, the Cobham family,
which still has a stake in the
group, ferociously defends its
heritage and is in open revolt
against the sell-out.
Nadine Cobham, wife of
former chief executive Michael
Cobham, who used to run the
group and is the son of the
legendary Alan, has written to
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace
and Business Secretary Andrea
Leadsom demanding they stop
the bid on the grounds of
‘national interest’.
Lady Cobham, who owns a
1.5 per cent stake worth a
potential £60 million, argues
the company has ‘turned
around’ and described the
offer by the private equity
vultures as ‘opportunist.’
For his part, Cobham chief
executive David Lockwood
denies his firm has rolled over.
He says: ‘The UK is the most
open defence market in the
world. Not only do we have for-
eign-owned companies but the
Air Force is largely equipped
with foreign equipment.’
He failed to mention that the
UK’s biggest defence contrac-
tor, BAE Systems, and civil
aviation giant Rolls-Royce, are
formally insulated from over-
seas ownership.
Make no mistake, Advent’s
bid to snatch Cobham
is a serious threat to the
firm’s future as a global
aerospace champion.
Private equity has a terrible
record of taking on well-run
companies, axeing jobs,closing headquarters, cutting
research and development
budgets and building up debt
as they seek to extract as much
value as quickly as possible.
It is no surprise that the ADS
Group, which represents more
than 1,000 UK aerospace,
defence, security and space
sector businesses, is calling for
the Government to intervene.
This issue does not just affect
the aerospace industry.
Private equity firms are run-
ning — or ‘running down’ — a
host of businesses and are
insufficiently monitored by
stock market authorities or
the Government.
A notorious example of how
things can go wrong was when
British Steel collapsed under
its owner, investment firm
Greybull — which had a
reputation for buying compa-
nies cheaply, milking them for
cash, then abandoning them.
Unsurprisingly, there has
been widespread criticism of
Cobham chairman Jamie Pike,
who is renowned for selling
companies he heads, after he
compliantly signed up to the
Advent deal before revealing it
to the stock market.
Cobham’s biggest share-
holder, Mayfair-based Silches-
ter International Investors,
has been particularly vocal,
saying the firm is being sold
too quickly and too cheaply.Powerful
There is a very powerful case
for government intervention.
Cobham’s importance to
Britain’s industrial infrastruc-
ture is similar to that of GKN,
the country’s oldest engineer-
ing firm, which was bought last
year by Melrose Industries, a
firm with a reputation for
asset-stripping.
Melrose was only allowed to
buy GKN after agreeing with
the Government that it would
not sell any of the aerospace
operations for at least five
years. This was a recognition
of the former Spitfire manufac-
turer’s importance to the UK’s
thriving aerospace industry.
In the case of Cobham,
Advent, with the support
of private equity outfitBlackstone, set about wooing
the Wimborne-based company
with a PR campaign.
It swooned about how
Cobham’s ‘technological
excellence, product innovation
and its trusted partner status
has established it as a market
leader in its defence, aerospace
and space markets.’
The truth is Cobham’s
‘technological excellence’ is
the very reason why its sell-off
would be a devastating
blow. For there would be no
guarantee that new foreign
owners would not sell it
off piecemeal.
Cobham employs 10,
skilled people across the globe
and has customers and part-
ners in more than 100 compa-
nies worldwide. It works closely
with the Ministry of Defence
and the Pentagon.
As is almost always the case
with such takeovers, big
financial carrots have been
dangled in front of the incum-
bent management to sell.Hazardous
Chief executive David Lock-
wood stands to collect up to
£6.4 million if the deal goes
ahead. Finance director David
Mellors would be in line
for £3.9 million.
The future should be very
bright for Cobham as an
independent company.
It is the trusted provider of
communications technology
that makes connections in the
most complex, harsh and
hazardous circumstances.
Its Fliteline radio systems are
used by the U.S. Coastguard,
the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security and
search-and-rescue services
across the world.
Cobham has also provided
the microelectronics for space
exploration for the past three
decades, including the Insight
mission, which has travelled
to Mars.
Much of the avionics on the
Airbus A320 airliner —
including radio and audio
systems, clocks, lights and
communication equipment —
is supplied by Cobham.
Allowing Cobham to fall
into the hands of private
equity predators, with
little understanding of its
venerable history, would be a
disgraceful act of national
corporate vandalism.
This is a battle that Biggles,
who defeated the Germans in
two World Wars and foiled a
Russian invasion, would
have relished.We must win this
dogfight for a firm
‘Biggles’ built into
a British high-flyer
As corporate vultures swoop on aerospace giant ...
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