Extraordinary items - Once an FD, always an FD

... but once a knight is enough. We can't say how disappointed we were with the New Year Honours List. Not a single FD among the lot, as far as we can tell. We certainly don't begrudge Sidney Treadgold his CBE - the chairman of the Financial Reporting Council can't have an easy time of it getting FDs to comply with tougher accounting standards. Nor can anyone gainsay the knighthood awarded to Alan McLintock (of Peat Marwick McLintock fame) for his services to the Church of England. Stan Mendham of the Forum of Private Business gets an OBE in recognition of his successful efforts to put late payment interest on the statute books.

The nearest we could find to an FD in the list were Gail Johnson, financial controller of the Royal Collection, and Mrs Barbara Blake, who earned an MBE in her role as a pay clerk at the Department of Health.

Congratulations to all - but surely FDs deserve more royal recognition than that. Still, at least Mr DG Reg, the Queen's FD, gets his name on all our coins.