Nigel on wheels and wings
WHAT Nigel Lawson wanted from his new job — so he told me last month, as we stood in the pouring rain, searching for taxis — was a car and a driver. I hope that Barclays de Zoete Wedd can help him out, though the firm takes an abstemious line about cars, rightly thinking that City men should get around their patch on foot. I discount the idea that he is being lined up as the next chairman of Barclays. That would mean, as his new job does not mean, making ritual kowtows to governors of the Bank of England. Besides, Barclays' chair- men are by tradition executives, profes- sional bankers, and members of the found- ing families. Mr Lawson is none of these and Andrew Buxton, Barclays' managing director, is all three. It seems to me that the former Chancellor has simply followed the most important rule in such transitions: your first move has got to be right. If it isn't, you don't get a second chance. (How Norman Tebbit must regret joining Blue Arrow!) The rule works both ways. Regin- ald Maudling moved from 11 Downing Street to Kleinwort Benson. Later, he took what proved to be a dubious outside directorship, and, worse, did not remem- ber to ask Sir Cyril Kleinwort before taking it. When he lost political office again in the 1970s, Kleinworts pointedly omitted to ask him back. Mr Lawson has more sense and less gullibility. I am fascinated to find him joining the board of GPA, the aircraft leasing company. When I see him next, I hope that he will have an aeroplane and a pilot.
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