Government policy has often been the butt of robust critiques by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, which delights in setting the highest standards.

Now the Paris think-tank has come under scrutiny itself. In a new report, Standard & Poor's gave the organisation an AA credit rating, three levels below the US and Germany. It suffers from cumbersome corporate governance, S&P added.

An OECD official welcomed the study, which it commissioned itself, "as being very well constructed and putting its finger on a number of important issues".

What better way to take constructive criticism than to welcome its very construction? No doubt the person in question has long listened to those the OECD chides welcoming its advice.