In early 2005, Kraft Foods Inc. brushed off rumors that it would close the last U.K. factory that came with its 1993 acquisition of British chocolate maker Terry's of York.

At a lunch for retired workers, recalls David Meeks, a third-generation Terry's employee, a Kraft executive assured the gathering: "We'll be here forever more."

Months later Kraft announced it was moving all of Terry's production abroad, ending a chocolate business that began in 1823.

As Kraft makes similar assurances to workers at Cadbury PLC, the near 200-year-old British confectionary it agreed to buy last week, politicians and the public here are increasingly questioning a once-accepted wisdom in this country: Britain's openness to foreign takeovers is a good thing.

The growing discontent is the result of a years-long stretch that leaves Britain with a dwindling list of major companies to call its own. The open-markets boom ended in a historic recession, and whole segments of U.K. commerce are now run from abroad.