Yes, of course.
My statement was too general, if not misleading. I meant he sought to retain a consensus for sake of holding on to the reigns of the issue of Iraq. In his case, that meant retaining a consensus within his party.
Sorry for the confusion.
Thank you for your gracious apology much appreiciated, sorry if I am a little tetchy today but I was on that live thread last night and did spend quite a bit of time defending Britain.