Cameron will look back on this vote as a political blessing
SO THE heir to Blair, who seemed so keen to intervene in Syria, has been stopped in his tracks.
Prime Minister David Cameron came home early from his holiday to persuade parliament of the need for action against Syria and in the end received a bloody nose himself.
It might not look great for him now but Cameron may very well look back on this night as a blessing politically.
When Tony Blair bamboozled parliament into voting for war against Iraq ten years ago, he in effect sowed the seeds of his own downfall, fatally wounding his legacy in the process.
Unless there is another dramatic turn of events Cameron is now unlikely to suffer the same fate.
His authority has been questioned, for sure, but he will not be racing ahead into a situation many feel he can not win.
Nobody questions that what is going on in Syria is anything but grotesque.
What MPs of all side asked is what good might have come from the UK intervening.
Cameron responded quickly to defeat in the Commons last night, saying that he would listen to parliament and the British people. Blair was better at outmanoeuvring his political opponents on the road to war, but it did him little good in the end.
BARCLAYS SWOOPS ON MINING GURUS
Anybody who doubted Barclays’ commitment to its investment bank following the departures of Bob Diamond and Rich Ricci will probably be re-examining their assumption after yesterday’s swoop on one of the biggest names in the London mining sector.
Barclays said it had recruited Michael Rawlinson, a founder shareholder at Liberum, to join its team alongside another new recruit from UBS, Paul Knight.
The two men will be global co-heads of the bank’s mining team, which will now surely add to its client list.
This already includes BHP, Randgold, Bumi and Aquarius Platinum.
Rawlinson, who was formally at JP Morgan Cazenove, must have found it hard to leave Liberum.
But the desire to work with larger clients at a bigger bank is believed to have been the deciding factor in his decision to leave.
His loss will be felt at Liberum where mining used to account for more than 30 per cent of revenues.
Fortunately that share has now come down to less than 10 per cent.
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