A quartet of news stories all point in the same troubling direction. First, easyJet is about to become the latest notable name to leave the London Stock Exchange, following last month’s takeover of Tate & Lyle by a US buyer. The FTSE 250-listed low-cost airline is keen to accept a £5.5 billion offer from Castlelake, a private equity firm that’s also – you’ve guessed it – from the US.

Inherent volatility in the aviation business combined with the presence of founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou as a minority shareholder has made easyJet a turbulent long-haul flight for investors. The shares have rocketed since Castlelake came into the picture, so cashing out looks rational – but the predation of our public market by foreign bargain-hunters goes on and on.

Then there’s a report of institutional investors in housebuilder Barratt Redrow demanding share buybacks, designed to re-inflate a share price that has halved since 2023 and to return cash to shareholders that might otherwise be deployed to acquire land for Barratt developments. This column tends to frown at the buyback mechanism, because arguably it signifies a business that has lost the courage to invest in its own future; it also indicates fear of cut-price takeover bids. But Barratt is Britain’s biggest housebuilder at a time when an urgent national need for new homes is high on the political agenda. The investors’ threat of a ‘boardroom coup’ if they don’t get their money back tells us something is seriously amiss.

Likewise, though less obviously,........

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