Comments on: Fraser Nelson: ignorance and paranoia, in one simple package

By: Banditry » Blog Archive » Longer Fraser Nelson

Banditry » Blog Archive » Longer Fraser Nelson — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:26:52 +0000

[...] the ignorant paranoiac says: The threat [of Terribly Bad Things if the Tories don't abolish all public services, taxes, [...]

By: Richard J

Richard J — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:02:30 +0000

apologies for the browser-fucking length of that link.

By: Richard J

Richard J — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:02:10 +0000

For the painfully curious – the family trees of most British accountancy firms.

http://www.icaew.com/index.cfm/route/155661/icaew_ga/en/Home/About_us/History_of_accounting/What_s_in_a_name_Firms_simplified_family_trees_on_the_web

(Incidentally, did anyone else notice that the big photo on p.15 of today’s Guardian had the entire group structure of News International in the background? Albeit unreadable.)

By: dsquared

dsquared — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:52:42 +0000

it probably reflects my age that I still think of them as the Big Six.

By: John B

John B — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:17:24 +0000

Oddly enough, modern accountancy was invented, and the big firms were created, to deal with the accounts of the Victorian railway companies: see William Deloitte, the first ever statutory auditor of a plc - the Great Western Railway. Mr Deloitte, of course, went on to found the firm that became, err, PwC (100% pure truth).

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:09:01 +0000

It possibly indicates my own obsession when I assumed Big Four meant the GWR, SR, LMS and LNER.

I’m glad they’re still around and grounding people in avoiding corruption, mind you.

By: Richard J

Richard J — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:36:29 +0000

No implication or sub-text is to be read into the above comment as to whether the Big Four are mercenary money-grabbing pricks or not.

By: Richard J

Richard J — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:35:36 +0000

From what I remember of PEPs from the training I had to do at one of the Big Four, the basic definition was effectively ‘would we look like mercenary money-grabbing pricks if it came up in Private Eye?’

By: Mark Wadsworth

Mark Wadsworth — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:34:09 +0000

If that is the explanation, then RBS must a) have changed their policy recently and b) be totally stupid.

Unless of course everybody else misinterprets PEP.

By: Aaron Murin-Heath

Aaron Murin-Heath — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:14:15 +0000

Oh cack. I had half-written a post about this.

I love a good conspiracy. :o)