Combined roles at M&S

There's more shareholder shenanigans underway at M&S, where the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum has filed a shareholder resolution. This seeks the appointment of an independent chair by July 2010 - in other words asking M&S to split the chair and chief exec roles combined by Stuart Rose.

An interesting test case, since separate chair and chief executive roles are the norm on UK companies, and it's a well-established governance principle here (unlike in the US). So why would any investor who claims to support the Combined Code vote against? Expect to see some tortuous arguments why not...