Why are political failures like David Cameron so richly rewarded?

The news – reported in the FT Weekend – that former Prime Minister David Cameron is to teach a three-week course in politics next month at the New York Abu Dhabi University is quite something.

For Cameron’s political career ended in spectacular failure – and he has hardly covered himself in glory since. A review of the former PM’s six years in Downing Street would have to include the way that it ended – which negated any achievements that his previous coalition with Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems may have chalked up – with Dave’s disastrous decision to call and lose the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.

No one forced Cameron to take the plunge that ended his time in power so swiftly and finally. His promise to hold the referendum was a panic move in response to the rise of Nigel Farage’s Ukip – and it was a pledge that he never thought that he would have to redeem.