An email tells me I have been slated by another blogger. Unfortunately Philip Woodgate is right to do so. At least in part.

He has post on AccMan Pro that 'It’s interesting to see that Damian’s had four comments to his blog, but not yet replied to one. Also his links to other blogs are JUST for AccountancyAge blogs.'

I haven't been posting replies but I'll start to do so post haste. As for linking to other blogs - I've been doing that both here and previously. Which prompts me to issue a quick reminder - let me know where the best accountancy-related blogs can be found and we'll feature a round-up at some on the site and in the paper.

There have been many attempts to bring accountancy institutes across the world closer together but today's could just be the most significant of all.

The news that the ICAEW, ICAS and their Irish equivalent have come together with six other professional accounting organisations could be a turning point in how accountants are represented globally.

On the face of it at least, this looks a million miles away from the Cognitor debacle of five or so years ago. That had been an attempt by a handful of institutes worldwide to launch a global qualification. And it failed ignominiously, not least because of its ludicrous name.

Since then we have seen institutes covering England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands seek to unify much of their qualifications by 2007. The aim has been to get as much as 80% of their syllabuses to be portable, with the remaining 20% devoted to national issues. We can only assume there is plenty of good work being done behind the scenes as we have heard precious little about in recently.

The new kid on this particular block, the Global Accounting Alliance, appears much more interesting.

The institutes taking part account for more than 700,000 of the world’s leading professional accountants, and together they pledge to 'promote quality professional services, global membership support, share information and collaborate on important international issues'.

The alliance, its members say, 'will work with national regulators, governments and stakeholders, through member-body collaboration, articulation of consensus views, and working in collaboration, where possible, with other international bodies'.

What makes it particularly significant, of course, is the participation of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which represents accountants in the world's biggest capital market. Without the AICPA's involvement this would have been another sideshow. But don't forget it was the members of the American institute who voted against particpation in the Cognitor qualification (which was seen a way of creating a rival qualification to the ubiquitous MBA), despite the efforts of their executive to win support.

Presumably the Global Accounting Alliance is not contingent of such explicitly expressed member support. And at least it has a name that makes sense even if, as one waggish colleague pointed out this morning, it looks like someone has already taken the P out of GAA.

Here's an interesting statistic.

A senior partner at one of the Big Four tells me the firm has carried out some analysis of the pastures for which newly accountants leave the firm. Another Big Four rival, you might think. Or a well-paying job in the City (after all until not so long ago the big investment banks were poaching Sarbox experts by offering them a package worth up to four times their Big Four pay).

No, 40% of the newly-qualifieds have been leaving them with no job to go to, apparently.

This could reveal deep dissatisfaction with their employer. More likely it shows deep dissatisfaction with employment generally.

Bars on Thai beaches are probably the most significant beneficiaries.

It lends new meaning to the oft-repeated assertion that an accountancy qualification is merely a passport....

So Des Hudson, chief exec of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, is standing down. It's a shame. He was an articulate advocate for both ICAS (which, in the eyes of many, he dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century) and for the profession.

All the same, and lest this sounds like an obituary, it's not really a surprise. The opportunity to take on top job at the Law Society was never one Hudson was likely to turn down. It's a much bigger role (compare ICAS' 14,000-strong membership to the Law Society's 116,000) and it had personal appeal. Before the Scots and a business career (mainly in the media industry) Hudson was a practising solicitor.

Not everyone will miss him, though. While one of his current colleagues admitted to me today that Hudson would be a hard act to follow, many senior figures at the ICAEW view his contributions to the merger debate as unnecessarily antagonistic.

Writing in Accountancy Age last summer, Hudson said the planned merger of ICAEW and CIPFA was based on ‘unproven beliefs’, adding that the argument that ‘one monolithic institute’ would be a more effective lobbyist was an ‘unconvincing’ one. It kicked off a spat between the bodies that has barely cooled since, even though the merger failed to occur.

ICAS now has six months to find a successor before Hudson goes. There is no obvious internal candidate (though these have a habit of emerging).  If one does, or if the right external candidate suddenly becomes available, expext Hudson to leave sooner.

And what can Hudson expect from the new role? Well, there is one indication already. In the ICAS press release announcing his derparture he is Des. In the Law Society release announcing his arrival he is Desmond. Very formal.

When we launched our latest blogs (as well as this one I recommend you take a peek at TaxHack and Taking Stock if you haven't done so already), we hunted around the web (or blogosphere as I believe the cognoscenti call it) for other examples. And we didn't find many.

In the UK journalist and accountant Dennis Howlett runs a decent one called AccManPro though it is laregly technology led. There are plenty of US ones (brought together nicley by SmartPros) though some thump Uncle Sam's tub a little too enthusiastically for my liking when I'm looking for finance info.

But there will be other I've missed. We're looking to bring them together in a neat directory - and may review some of them in print in Accountancy Age. Post details of your favourites here.

We were a little generous with our headline ICAEW: 'We're still number 1' on the front page last week. A new Financial Reporting Council report revealed that membership growth at the institute was negligible and that at current growth rates, rival institute ACCA would outstrip the ICAEW globally by 2008. Alarming stuff. 'Institute set to lose top slot to rival', might have been the ticket in hindsight.

Interestingly and encouragingly for ACCA a report on BBCBurmese.com informs us that 'every year, increased number of young people from Burma come to UK to study accounting'. In Rangoon the British Council offers help with a number of accountancy qualifications, including ACCA. Apparently there is another option. Of course, it's not an ACA. It's an LCCI.

A what, you might well ask.

It's the International Qualifications offered by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, apparently. That's new to me and makes me wonder what other qualifications are being offered out there.

This  won't reflect well on me, but I have to say yesterday's FT reminded me of Viz, the comic for thrity-somethings suffering from arrested development.

One of its many satirical innovations (Viz's that is, not the FT's) was to run letters from readers looking for a fight. The next letter would be a response from another reader, up for a fight and keen to arrange a time and a place.

It was all very childish, though no less amusing for it. And it captured perfectly the false arguments dressed up as serious debate that fills so many letters pages on the nationals. What was new with this approach was the way in which time ceased to matter. Why wait for the next issue when readers could respond instantly.

Now the FT is at it, with its report on yesterday's Oxera report from the DTI and the Financial Reporting Council. The news was broken on page one and in the same edition there was a letter on page 16 responding.

Full marks to BDO's Jeremy Newman and Grant Thornton's Michael Cleary for speed of thought.

Many of us had embargoed copies os the report but Newman and Cleary were impressively quick to react.

More significantly perhaps, they presented an intriguingly united front. Could the mid-tier mergers denounced as unlikely by the FT's leader piece in the same edition not be as far-fetched as some might expect? Perhaps not on this admittedly scant evidence.