We have just been reminded that Britain is the most open market for inward investment in the world, with news last week that a Chinese sovereign wealth fund is setting out to buy a 9% interest in Thames Water. But the interest was that this was China, not that it was a sale to foreigners, for we are well used to that. The British motor industry is almost entirely foreign-owned, as is much of London's office property.
Take the Shard, the tallest building in the EU: 80%-owned by a Qatar consortium.
Politically this is not much of an issue, at least not yet. Sure, Ed Miliband attacked the takeover of Cadbury by Kraft a few days ago, citing it as the sort of foreign sale that he would seek to restrict but when Boris Johnson was asked about funding a new airport in the Thames estuary he said that sovereign wealth funds would be happy to invest.
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