The Germans French and Americans would not like it the Japanese would not contemplate it

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The Germans, French and Americans would not like it; the Japanese would not contemplate it, so why does it happen here? And does it matter?A conversation at a Christmas party reminded me why the British motor industry went up for sale. The fact that so little of it is still British is a phenomenon of the Nineties. It is a decade that has seen much of Britain - starting with the electricity industry and parts of the rail and water business - up for sale and snapped up by foreign buyers.But it had happened before. It's a fine place to work, but, just as foreign players win Wimbledon, foreign banks and securities houses own a controlling interest in the City of London.The City's banks, shipping and insurance businesses earn more money abroad than any other industry in Britain. The fair play of the crowd and the skill of the groundsmen is a metaphor for the City. Barclays had sold off the equities and corporate finance business in BZW to a German bank, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell; just before Christmas, Hambro's sold its banking business to a French bank.Hurd, staring ahead at a panoramic view of the City, said: "It's Wimbledonisation." He meant creating beautiful conditions in which foreign players can come over here and win. What happened to NatWest Markets was not nearly as bad as Nick Leeson's pounds 869m loss that wiped out Barings.

But it had suffered a pounds 70m loss by a trader who had been allowed to go out of control. The directors and shareholders of NatWest grew anxious and irritable At the end of November they decided enough was enough. NatWest Markets was sold to Bankers Trust of New York, leaving Lord Hurd, as he had now become, unsure of his position.I happened to see him a few days later in his office in Broadgate, and I asked him why British financial institutions - the banks and the securities houses that have been rooted in the City for almost two centuries - are so enthusiastic about selling their assets to foreigners Merrill Lynch had bought Mercury Asset Management. The dealers raised money for big business, sold shares at home and abroad, and traded pesos, French long bonds and anything else in which ingenious financiers had created a market. But earlier this year, NatWest realised that it had bitten off more than it could chew. To make their huge profits, global banks have to absorb some hefty losses, and guard against fraud on an extraordinary scale.

And if one should happen to tip over into incoherence, which can happen to anyone at this time of year, at least any gaffes will be unintelligible.. When Douglas Hurd finally left politics in 1995, he got a job in the City as deputy chairman of NatWest markets. He was the public face for hundreds of traders, working in the floors below him, who had been hired to make profits counted in hundreds of millions - the way traders do in Wall Street investment banks like Goldman Sachs. Standing looking terrified or dejected is a sure-fire way of making everyone else avoid you An alluringly Sphinx-like air is more attractive "Look as if you are musing," advises Beyfus.