Chocolate is love, made tangible and moulded into a foil-wrapped bar. As toddlers, we gorge innocently on parental treats, the sticky stuff smearing our lips like kisses. Later, chocolate may herald or substitute for grown-up sensual pleasures. Kraft’s £10.2bn bid for Cadbury therefore stirs deep emotions, like chocolate itself. MPs and councillors in Birmingham are viscerally against the takeover. Correspondence from FT readers broadly favours Cadbury remaining independent .

Would anyone feel so strongly were Cadbury best known for making processed cheese? Hardly.