Labour's not working, ran the Saatchi advert for the Tory party in 1979. Labour's not working for business is becoming the corporate mantra in 2006.

It's unfortunate for Gordon Brown. After doing so much good work in his early years in office (ensuring, if not delivering, fiscal and economic stability, granting independence to the Bank of England for setting interest rates, creating a minimum wage without upsetting UK plc too much etc), his image in the City is taking a battering these days.

Many business leaders – and not just the usual suspects - are carping publicly about stealth taxes and even some supporters are questioning whether he really has capitalised on nine years of a benign economic climate to deliver substantial reform.

It's a shame that it comes just months before his inevitable coronation as prime minister, though surely not a coincidence. The current complaints are clearly shots across Brown's bow.

It's not just just Brown's problem. Labour has wider issues when it comes to business relationships.

There is plenty of goodwill to be capitalised on in framing a green tax regime, though it could be easily lost.

Six secretaries of state in nine years at the DTI is hardly a stable regime.

And last week's tweaks to the six-year-old Small Business Service, though broadly welcomed, mean that the main agency for fostering an entrepreneurial culture in the UK has been tinkered with every 12 months since birth.

Brown will have to regain the deft touch he showed in his early months as chancellor if his transition to PM is to be a smooth one.

We toyed with a number of headlines on Tuesday night in the Accountancy Age newsroom as we put together this week's front page. The story, of course, was that the ICAEW had elected to appoint chief operating officer Michael Izza as Eric Anstee's successor. 'New man at the top pledges more of the same' was one idea. 'Better the devil you know, says ICAEW' another. In the end we went with 'One man, ten threats, 130,000 problems'.

Despite strong steers that Izza was emerging as the favoured candidate in recent weeks, I have to say news of his appointment still came as a surprise. I had spoken to too many influential people who had hoped to see an Anstee mark 2 candidate emerge for it to be anything else. Izza, as the backroom force within Moorgate Place during Anstee's tenure, is a very different beast.

Nevertheless it would be unfair to describe Izza as a second choice candidate as he was clearly the best person for the job among those who had applied.

But many of those on the appointments committee would have hoped to quiz a former FD who had plied his (or, perish the thought, her) trade in practice for a number of years and could boast international experience and regulatory contacts. That person was clearly unavailable or unwilling to return the calls of the headhunters from Boyden.

So Izza has a lot to prove: to the individuals who appointed him and, much more importantly, to the 130,000 chartered accountants for whom he now finds himself responsible.

We spent a long time on Tuesday identifying the key challenges he faces. We came up with a list of ten (for there is an unwritten rule of journalism somewhere that says it must be so) but there are others. Let me know what you think.

From AccountancyAge.com: 'KPMG UK has held discussions with other KPMG firms in Europe with a view to additional mergers, it emerged today.'

It was only the other day that KPMG's main man in London said he wasn't interested in size for size's sake. But now John Griffith-Jones has pulled off something unexpected: the UK firm is merging with its German firm to create Europe's largest accountancy firm.

What does it mean? Well very little, as far as I can tell. It might make the partnerships more profitable – so expect a spike in second property prices. But for clients it's hard to imagine life will be different.

Maybe it signals a new structure for larger firms though. Does it signal the death of the national partnership? We're asking that question of KPMG's rivals today – so watch AccountancyAge.com for updates.

Not unconnected are Eric Anstee's comments to the new all-member Accountancy magazine. In a piece written for the section where the ICAEW is allowed to talk directly to members, the chief executive says that 'alliances and partnerships are the way forward'. It's clearly what KPMG believes in looking internally for growth rather than acquisition or merger. Whether Anstee's latest missive marks a u-turn or not – before announcing his departure he had hinted a second merger vote could take pace next year - remains to be seen.