Top Northern Irish IFA, David McCullough, is furious over Standard Life's use of his letter paper to canvass support for its 'no' to demutualisation campaign.

The affair cannot help the image of Standard Life, whose members are set to vote on its corporate status this week. The vote may well fall short of the 75% which demutualisation requires. But people in Scotland say it should exceed 50% which could be counted as a moral defeat for the Standard Life board, led by Scott Bell.