Normally, political interventions by showbiz luvvies can be safely ignored. 

An op-ed in the Guardian by actors Alan Cumming, Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong opposing the $110billion takeover of Warner Bros by Paramount Skydance is an exception.

The three performers are rightly concerned about the impact of the deal, largely financed by debt, on global film-making, news output and Britain’s world-leading creative sector.

The names of the stars objecting and the familiarity of TV, streaming and filmmaking to audiences means entertainment takeovers can command space in the media which other deals fail to attract.

The first half of this year saw a record volume of $231billion of British companies – several in sectors critical to the British economy such as tech, AI and pharma – vanish into the hands of highly leveraged private equity firms and overseas buyers without voices being raised.

As of writing, Britain’s leading commercial TV channel ITV (and its news contract with ITN) is the subject of a negotiated merger with America’s Comcast, owner of Sky and Universal. 

The UK’s biggest data centre operator Segro, at the forefront of the AI revolution, is about to be swallowed up by San Francisco-based Prologis.

This is an anonymous name down at the Pig & Whistle and to most Labour politicians. There are no publicly known stars at Segro to oppose a £14billion transaction, despite its origins in Slough, home to The Office. 

This has allowed the nodding-dog directors to raise the white flag. Where are you, Ricky Gervais, when your country needs you?

In the latest of these unwanted deals, Britain’s Pinewood Technologies, which provides tech services to the motor industry, finds itself under siege from American private equity outfit Ridgeview. 

This appears unsexy, but as with every debt-laden bid, it must be paid for, and jobs, control and UK tax revenues will vanish.

At stake in the Paramount-Warner deal, which has caught the eye of Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, are jobs in Britain’s creative sector. It supports more than 180,000 people (including my own offspring) and some £6.8billion of production spend. When dealmakers talk about synergies, they mean job losses.

In addition, there is concern that CNN, which offers robust criticism of Donald Trump’s White House, will be overwhelmed by the Maga leanings of Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle and financier of the Paramount bid.

There should also be misgivings about Comcast absorbing ITV through Sky. Comcast’s takeover was far from being a cost-free exercise. 

Brian Roberts of Comcast overpaid and wrote off $8.6billion (£7billion). Out-of-sight-and-mind bits of Sky, such as its digital arm, were axed.

We have no idea what the deal is going to mean for the future of Sky News (beyond 2028) or ITN.

Yet the transaction is viewed favourably in Whitehall because of a multi-billion investment in a Hertfordshire theme park by Universal, a Comcast offshoot.

The nation needs voices to be raised loudly against the sell-out of all the nation’s tech and creative crown jewels.

After a couple of clinical setbacks in recent months – for nerve drug Wainua and breast cancer medicine Etcamah in the US – AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot needed to reassure investors with the group’s half-year results.

He strove to do that with better-than-expected second quarter earnings and a reiteration of a forecast of $80billion in income by 2030. The shares rose 1.7 per cent, having fallen around 7 per cent this year.

Pharma companies are all about the long-term and the value in AZ is its pipeline of new compounds, with 20 or so treatments advancing, several of which are in its favoured oncology space.

AZ’s focus has switched to the US as Soriot has curried favour with the Trump White House and sought a higher valuation with a New York listing.

Etcamah, however, has gained approval from the sometimes-slow European Drugs Agency. Developed at AZ’s home base in Cambridge, it demonstrates that British pharma R&D is still alive and well.