TakingStock - Standard-setter brightens up those long winter nights.

Now here at TS we know all too well how accountancy can often be a rather dry topic. And the development of accounting rules is deemed to be one of the areas most avoided. But not in Iceland.

Geoffrey Whittington, UK liaison board member at the global standard setter, IASB, recently gave a talk in London at which more than 100 accountants from Iceland pitched up.

Now given the size of the population that must have left a lot of businesses unattended. Unless Geoff mistook Iceland the country for Iceland the supermarket chain.

However Wittington made the stunning calculation that 100 people was around 60% of the Icelandic accountancy sector.

This, as he pointed out, was much more than most UK bodies could muster for any event. Dream on Geoff.

Unless of course it is to vote on subscription fees.