It’ll be 42 degrees in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, warmer even than London. But no hot seat in the Gulf, running the lavishly endowed state owner and operator of a new $3bn (£1.8bn) railway project, can be as hot as the one Richard Bowker is leaving at National Express.

As recently as the end of last week, the bus and rail group’s chief executive was determined he was the right person to tough out negotiations with the Department for Transport about the ailing East Coast franchise. That determination did him credit, but it did not prolong his tenure. As this column pointed out two weeks ago, the fact he was inextricably linked with the “successful” August 2007 bid for the franchise would have made it hard for him to survive the now inevitable default. The UAE job offers him a convenient exit. But like Chip Hornsby, who’s just stepped down as Wolseley’s chief executive, Mr Bowker was fatally lumbered with decisions he took when expansionism was in fashion.