Join our campaign to end US 'extradition on demand'
By Damian Reece, Head of BusinessWhich issue unites voices as diverse as civil liberties campaigners and big business? The Lib Dems and the Tories? Hedge-fund managers, private equity and directors of public companies, not to mention thousands of Telegraph readers?
The answer is extradition, and the shocking lack of protection for UK citizens when faced with the aggressive regime of America under the Bush presidency.
Yesterday the NatWest three were finally sentenced, highlighting once again the appalling injustice and risks we run under the present lopsided extradition arrangements the UK suffers with the US.
Our open letter first published in summer of 2006, was the rallying call for a campaign backed by the likes of Shami Chakrabarti, the leading human rights campaigner, Richard Lambert, the voice of British business, Digby Jones, now a member of the Government and Labour peer, and a host of top names from the country's corporate elite. You can view the letter and signatures at telegraph.co.uk.
We urged Reid to halt that extradition, not to stop the case (we always urged they should be tried, but tried here) but to correct the mistake of a previous home secretary and preserve Britain's ancient tradition of transparent justice.
Too many similar cases have also highlighted how exposed we are thanks to our government's failure. American authorities can arrive in the UK and demand your extradition any time. You will have no ability to challenge the move or question US evidence against you. Perhaps worst of all, there will not be any consideration of which country is most suitable to hear your case. If America wants to put you on trial in a US court, having already forced you to spend time in a US jail with limited legal representation, it can. You are at risk of American "extradition on demand".
Maybe with a new president in the White House the UK Government might feel emboldened to improve our lot, but with Labour in such disarray at home it seems unlikely.
It is time to take the matter into your own hands. Add your name to our campaign by clicking on my comment online at www.telegraph.co.uk/business and posting your views to help us change a manifestly unfair extradition arrangement with America.
Private equity emerges from hibernation
Are mergers and acquisitions back? Reed Elsevier's decision on Thursday to sell its business magazines division will help prove if M&A activity is recovering. Before last summer, a business such as Reed Business Information would have had a queue of debt-funded private equity bidders lining up for it.
But the intervening credit crunch has since caused a funding drought, prompting the view that Reed has got its timing wrong, and selling now is a mistake. Reed was spectacularly fortunate to complete its previous deal, the $5bn (£2.5bn) sale of Harcourt, the education publisher, at the end of July, before banks withdrew credit on a massive scale. Within days deals of any size were off the agenda. The question now is whether the banks will be willing to fund bids for a magazines business still planted very firmly in the print age. The omens aren't as bad as people might think. Emap recently sold a business information company to a private equity consortium including Apax, investing alongside the Guardian Media Group, for £1bn. Businesses such as Reed's have plenty of assets with operational potential and people are always willing to pay for the cash flows they produce.
But the wider deal market is showing signs of life. Small deals such as Pret a Manger are getting done, with private equity involvement, while there are signs of a bidding war breaking out over Biffa, the waste management company, again involving private equity in the form of Terra Firma.
As we know, corporates have had a busy few months at the top end with bids for Rio Tinto and Scottish & Newcastle coming in from trade rivals.
With the UK banking season revealing our lending institutions in reasonable health after the traumas of 2007, the creatures of the private equity world are showing signs of emerging from their hibernation.
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