Wednesday was a great day for John Lawrie, Scottish Provident investment manager for Ireland. A supporter of the concept of mutuality, he was thrilled that

Nationwide depositors in Britain voted to maintain the building society's current status.

One million, or 75 per cent of depositors, including Mr Lawrie, rejected any move to change the society's current mutual status. He described the campaign to woo members towards public company status as like asking six-year-olds at a birthday party to vote for cream cakes. The surprising thing for many was that they voted against the cream cakes. But it is a sign of how sophisticated investors have become, he said. Maybe they just realised, you can't have your cream cake and eat it too.