Have you ever been so insulted?

I'm addressing that question to the accountants who read this blog.

In today's Sunday Times Rod Liddle reports on a discussion about how to rebrand Gordon Brown. He talks to Saffron, a branding company run by Wally Olins CBE who is reported in the paper as thinking that the public could end up feeling sorry for Gordon Brown who should remember:

"..what made him attractive to the party in the first place..."

And what was that exactly? Mr Olins expands:

"This is what happens when you put an accountant in charge of the company. Disaster. The voters liked the double act of Blair and Brown; they understood that one was about presentation and ideas and the other was about accounting. That worked"

I'm not sure what's worse. The suggestion that Mr Brown is an accountant, that it's an insult to him to describe him that way or the suggestion that accountants are not qualified to run a company effectively.

I've explained elsewhere why I disagree with the campaign to limit use of the term 'accountant' to those of us who have relevant professional qualifications. Perhaps I need to revise my view if it would help distinguish qualified accountants from politicians with no accounting training or experience whatsoever!