I have just had a scan done of dozens of search engines and here are some very encouraging results for my site. If you search for Duncan Williamson on the following search engines, this is how I am placed:

Engine	Placing
www.lycos.com	3
www.msn.com	6
www.yahoo.com	1
www.aol.com	2
www.netscape.com	2
www.excite.com	2
www.webcrawler.com	1
www.alltheweb.com	3
www.lycos.co.uk	1
www.altavista.co.uk	1
www.msn.co.uk	1
www.yahoo.co.uk	1
www.hotbot.co.uk	1
www.aol.co.uk	1
www.excite.co.uk	3
www.mirago.co.uk	2
www.freeserve.com	3
www.overture.com	1
www.allthesites.com	12
www.go.com	1
www.mamma.com	1

Not bad, eh? By the way, if you are interested in homoeopathic medicines and you go to France, you might care to pop into a pharmacy over there. On the basis of a sample of 5 or 6 different homoeopathic medicines, the French sell for around £0.60 - 0.80 what we sell in the UK for £3.75 - £4.00. It's a national outrage! Of course. DW

Here is an experiment. Call me mad or call me sad, you can choose which it is but since today is my birthday and I am not normally given to celebrating such events, I would like to receive from all of my readers a simple birthday wish. All you have to do is to click on the link that follows and then send the thing to me ... all automatic but you can add a message if you wish. Click here to send. That's all! Secondly, please take a look at this if you are even in the least bit interested in how the NHS works. It's my account of a morning spent at a hospital in the UK. DW

I know this much: Judge not that ye be not judged (taken from the Bible from the book of Matthew chapter 7 verse 1). However, I'm going to say this anyway. On Wednesday of this week I was walking through the town centre at a time when children should still have been at school when I came across a young boy walking through town with a woman whom I assumed to be his mother: the boy seemed to be around 12 or 13 years old and this is how he looked: seriously overweight baggy trousers tee shirt four or five sizes too big a baseball cap a ring hanging from his pierced eye brow This boy is coming to epitomise modern Britain where weak parents of single minded children are allowing those children to walk roughshod over everything they see and come up against. This boy is fat and I blame his parents for allowing him to be fat: I work hard with my own children if I think they have a problem with their diet and their exercise levels. The boy was wearing trousers and a sleeveless tee shirt: it was chilly and his mother ought to have made the child wear something more substantial. I don't like baseball caps on anyone but that's my personal preference but it set off this boys attitude and that turned me off, too. That such a young child could have had his body pierced, though, is as much of a crime as allowing him to become overweight. Doubtless the child will have a tattoo by the time he is 18 years old: another crime against the body in my opinion. These are my observations and opinions: I know many of you will think that I am a fuddy duddy who should lighten up a bit; but I can't. In a sense I want to protect these children from their weak and misguided parents and themselves. This nation is following the USA into obesity just as we have followed them into an appalling standard of spoken and written English. This nation has become one where it's no longer good enough, for example, to wear trainers but that they have to be a certain brand of trainers. The trainers are very expensive but yet their true manufacturing costs are very small: we allow ourselves to be cheated out of as much as £50 or £60 a pair in some cases as we pay for advertising, sportsmen's sponsorship deals, multi stage mark ups and retail profit margins. The boy in my story was wearing a "designer" baseball cap, a "designer" tee shirt; and probably "designer" trousers and trainers. Could his eye ring have been "designer" too? End of rant for now! DW

I'm back following a 10 drip to Provence, that's France you know! I've kept a sort of diary that will keep you riveted but first: Joyce from Korea wanted answers to a couple of IAS based questions: done and sent! Natalie from South Africe is receiving ongoing advice on the elements of budgets: doing that! Karin from Austria is receiving ongoing help on knowledge management: doing that! Tom describes himself as a Mature student struggling with bookkeeping and has asked for help with my specimen question ... I need to know which question he means! Sarah from Geordieland has started a dissertation relating to Marks and Spencer and we are discussing her overall plan: doing that! Clive from Birmingham is an accountant who has come across a fascinating Benford's Law type problem involving the Inland Revenue: looks to me as if the IR is making a mess of it and I am working with Clive to sort it all out: doing that! Andrew from Surrey wants a bit of technical help on the bookkeeping aspect of recording bad debts: doing that! Mahmood from India wants to know why LIFO is being taken out of IAS 2: this is what I told him ... Hi Mahmood, Good question: here’s the answer! LIFO was banned in many countries, eg the UK, for a long time and then IAS 2 came along and allowed it. However, after just a few years even the IASC is about to disallow LIFO. The reason is that LIFO provides an organisation with a potential taxation advantage over alternative stock valuation methods. To prove that this is true, set up a simple stock valuation question for yourself by inventing some purchases, usages, costs and sales of some raw materials and then prepare the stock record card using … make sure that you build in cost inflation FIFO LIFO AvCo then prepare the Trading and Profit and Loss Account and compare the answers you get. This will help you to see what LIFO can be a problem. However, the USA has always liked and allowed LIFO and continues to do so as far as I know! Let me know if you need any more help. Best wishes Watch out for the French Trip Diary: a week in Provence I'm calling it! DW

Marks and Spencer, UK Retailer, has been at odds with HM Customs and Excise over VAT on teacakes: no really, it's gripping the nation! M&S argued that teacakes should be zero rated for VAT purposes and HMC&E agreed. What they disagreed on, however, was the recovery of the VAT already paid on the teacakes already sold that had been subject to the tax. M&S said: we overpaid therefore we should get it back. HMC&E said: you overpaid but you cannot give it back to the people who actually paid it. In the first move of its kind, Customs invoked laws on unjust enrichment which prevents the government repaying VAT to companies if it means they would benefit unfairly because it is impossible to pass the recouped VAT back to the people who paid the tax originally. It is the first time Customs has successfully argued unjust enrichment. accountancyage.com See? HMC&E is arguing that M&S would need to be able to reimburse the exact amount of VAT to exactly those people who bought the teacakes when they were subject to VAT! Nonsense? Of course! Solution? You might have your own solution but here are just two from me: either HMC&E or M&S pays the money to a charity: since HMC&E probably can't do that for legal reasons, let M&S do it give the money back to M&S and let them TRANSPARENTLY reduce the selling price of the teacakes they sell now until the money runs out Has HMC&E kept ALL the money? No: The court ruled 90% of the VAT should be retained by the government. accountancyage.com How much money is involved? The BBC provides that answer to that: ... it could be worth £12m to M&S ... Including backdated interest ... M&S believes its claim dates back to 1973 ... The retailer claims it paid £3.3m too much VAT on teacakes £1m too much on bottled water £800,000 on gift vouchers and £500,000 on tinned biscuits news.bbc.co.uk Please note, the BBC article is dated October 2001 so any claims for interest on the amounts owed must be updated to allow for that: another £980,000 at 4% per year compound, possibly. Is this the end of the matter? Not necessarily as M&S could take its case to the House of Lords but it is waiting to learn the outcome over the referral of part of the case to the European court. 'We are considering our position,' said a spokesman. accountancyage.com DW

This just came in and I'm really chuffed about it: Hi D I just wanted to thank you for your VERY informative website. I live in a small town on the South East coast of South Africa called East London (yes, I know, rather British sounding but we used to be a part of the British colonies). I am studying Accounting and Financial Management via correspondence and our local library doesn't have much in the way of Economics or Business. Your website has really helped me with my assignments. Don't worry, I have given you credit in my bibliography! I have done really well so far - all A+ or A's. Nice to know, isn't it. I wrote and thanked Natalie for such kind and unsolicited comments. DW

Update from 27 September. Not only did I paint the front and back door steps but I repainted the front door: looks very smart now, even better than when we moved in. I also painted the garage door: colour = stone. At first Mrs W was horrified and as I was around one third of the way through the first coat she was making plans for an alternative colour. All of our neighbours came to marvel: especially our next door neighbour who realised that he would probably have to paint his own adjacent garage door as his will now look extremely shabby ... it does! After the second coat the following day even Mrs W conceded that the garage door looks smart and the colour is fine. Mr Next Door is unhappy but at the time of writing has still managed to avoid having to paint his own door and the first frost has now struck! He could be safe until next year.

Some of my latest efforts: what I have been up to: Dear DW, Thanks for sending me the answers to the questions concerning IAS1. They have been very helpful to me. have a nice day. Daniel Karin from Italy/Austria continues to get the DW help and assistance treatment. Tony from Liverpool is back and asking about auditing and risk: a huge thanks to Chris Lamb of London Metropolitan University for helping me out with this one. My ImageCorp or PhotoInd spreadsheet is still a popularly requested item: still free of charge! My financial accounting case study is selling well: still only costs £5 and it's a real snip at that. The price WILL be going up soon! My answers to the IAS questions on my site are still popular: still free of charge! Ari used to be confused about capital rationing. Beeny couldn't unravel some basic capital budgeting questions until I came along! And so on! DW

The CBI (Confederation of British Industry) announced that it is furious with the UK government over the UK business tax burden. It says that ... the country's main company taxes stands at around 9% of GDP, above the average of its main trading rivals. . Then the CBI goes on to say The report says the UK is not that different from Germany, where business taxes are 10.1 % of gross domestic product. But worse than the US with 7.3%, with only France taking a significantly higher share of national income, at 14.4%. Well, I reckon the average so far is 10.6% so the UK is doing well. That's an example of how NOT to present an argument: sorry CBI, must try harder! In its defence, The Treasury has criticised the report's calculations and accused the lobby group of being contradictory. Treasury 1 CBI 0 DW

I came across this word in an email just now: who can tell me what gyming means? Seriously, I'd like to know what you think as I present it out of context. Just write to me duncan@duncanwil.co.uk by clicking on this link and then adding your definition! DW

If you're a follower of this glorious WeBlog you might be forgiven for thinking that I've not been updating it ... Blogger.Com and my ISP have been conspiring against me and refused to allow my posts for a while. Here we are again, though: all sorted out ... famous last words! DW

If Hameed from Canada reads this: I tried to reply to your request but my messages were returned as undeliverable ... let me know how to reply successfully and I'll do that. DW

I spent a couple of hours preparing my front lawn for the winter: mowing, raking, mowing and will add the dressing on Wednesday or Thursday. Let me advise you all now that my lawn is the best lawn on our estate and the best that I've seen in our town this summer bar none. The secret has been constant and careful watering and proper feeding and weed control. It's not the best lawn there is since there are about 10 different types of grass in it but it looks a lot better than most and vastly better than some! I close cropped the back lawn too but didn't have the strength to rake and double mow it! By the way the second raking, to get rid of the thatch, produces a shocking amount of materials that would otherwise lie there undiscovered and anyone who is serious about their lawn should do what I did: advice comes courtesy of a wise gardener on BBC Radio Oxford that I tuned into accidentally yesterday around midday. DW

I am spending a bit of time in the Birmingham area at the moment and last week actually spent a night there! My business takes me to the Solihull area but I stayed right in the heart of Birmingham: Broad Street to be precise. I followed detailed directions to get from Solihull to Broad Street but got lost and it took me around an hour and a half to drive the 12 or so miles from door to door. I found my own way back the following morning and took only 45 minutes to accomplish what was a really simple journey by a totally different route. I stopped off in Solihull on Friday morning and relived part of my youth at their market: Eccles cakes, custard tarts, lemon curd ... I had to buy them all. I also invested in some nice Cox's Pippins and Bramley apples, marvellous. Broad Street is a cultural centre: bars, cafes restaurants and hotels abound. I had a decent Indian meal for around £20 in the evening: not especially good value and not the best meal I ever had but decent decor, good service so it wasn't bad. In the morning I needed to go to an internet cafe since I knew someone needed an email response urgently. Hooked up, logged on to the slowest connection since around 1995 in Almaty! I had been there for about 20 minutes when a cheery chappie from BT rocked up and started larging it into his mobile ... switched us all off! I didn't achieve my objectives in full but at least they didn't charge me either! Good business that! DW

Ever heard of Glist? It's a product that you can use in your dishwasher to get your dishes clean ... unless you speak Russian, in which case you think that glist relates to a worm that crawls out of a certain orifice located in the nether regions of your own fair anatomy! You choose!! You might remember that I returned from Ireland last year via Stranraer in Scotland to make sure I could buy some Scottish bread … I have just pulled the second loaf from the freezer and it’s providing more breakfasts of delight! I think it’s survived pretty well and I’ll miss it now as it filled a tidy corner or our small freezer! That’s the last of the Scottish bread in this household but I did notice that Tesco were stocking the self same source of carbohydrates the other week. Trouble is, or it it good news, I’m the only one who likes it chez moi! You'll be fascinated to learn that I painted our front and back doorsteps yesterday: second coats today. An instant hit as it made such a big difference. If only my digital camera weren't at the repair shop again you could have seen the fruits of my labours. DW

Here's a hot tip: if Mike Tomlinson calls and tells you about a guaranteed way to make huge money by investing in Information Biometrics or any other such nonsense, ask him why his company Dunhill Capital is well known as a gang of criminals. He might be able to blether for 5 or 10 minutes about how your money is safe with him. Keep pressing, however, and he'll hang up on you and probably never bother you again! If you are worried about Dunhill Capital, about which I know little, for whom I have never worked and with whom I have never invested ... I can send you a couple of internet links. Alternatively go to www.google.co.uk and do a search for them and see what you find. Don't send them any money under any circumstances is my advice! DW

I wrote this to a Business/Economics discussion list that I'm a member of: Just in case it's slipped everyone's attention, the Enterprise Act that came into force beginning in April of this year contains new powers that Business Studies and Economics teachers and students need to be aware of. The Enterprise Act "works alongside the Competition Act of 1988 and various pieces of consumer legislation, largely replacing the Fair Trade Act 1973": see the PDF file link below for the source of this quotation. This page highlights the major changes to relate to: Mergers Cartels Direct Disqualification Enforcement of Consumer Law Super complaints Market investigation There are also new insolvency rules that this page chooses not to highlight for some reason; and Accountancy Age reports that at least three companies have already fallen foul of the insolvency rules contained within the Enterprise Act even though they only came into force last week: Ciro Cittero, Sentry Box (graphic designers) and MAL Holdings (Mayflower Group). There are several PDF files relating to the various parts of the Act including this general overview. As you might expect, the DTI also has pages devoted to this Act. There is an email alert service available for this Act ... when I tried to sign up, however, I was given an error message so only time will tell whether I was successful! I hope this is of use to everyone. DW

As English English slides into Americanese at an alarming rate, good news. In a report in the Business Today journal there is a small article entitled Communicating: Business bugged by buzzwords. Here are a couple of snippets: 60% of company directors feel annoyed or irritated when people use jargon or buzzwords in business conversation ... buzzwords annoy female directors more than male directors (65% and 57% respectively). The worst offender was 'let's touch base' ... followed by 'no brainer' ... 'synergy' ... 'outside the box' ... 'let's take this offline' ... 'playing hardball'. The author of the original report says that While buzzwords can create an illusion of understanding for those who use them, they often signal just the opposite to others on the receiving end ... Thankfully, good communicators are not born but made, which is good news for those that usually opt for meaningless phrases to paper over the cracks in their knowledge. DW

For disciplinarians here's a great story. I was reading a potted history of a school in the South of England and came across the fact that the headmaster of this school for part of the 18th century was known as Flogging Tom. Thought you might enjoy that! DW

Another helpful visitor pointed out where some of my 404 File Not Found Errors are coming from. Thank you Emma Dicks. Here's what I said to Emma: Thanks Emma, Not only there but in a couple of the linked pages too. Kind of you to take the time to help me out. Best wishes Some good and helpful people on this earth! DW