I shouldn't have to write this. Despite being pretty left-wing in my politics I believe that the role of the state should be limited to doing the kind of stuff that, I imagine, we all think are things that we can't do ourselves. Or that our locally-elected councillors can't provide of us. Such things as maintaining the armed forces, negotiating with other nation states, collecting and distributing national taxes and, I'm sure, lots of other duties too.
Where I start to fall out with the role of government and government bodies is when they start to interfere in my private affairs. What especially pi$$es me off is when they do so in an officious, threatening and bullying way which assumes that they have the authority to direct my life and that I am some sort of criminal.
Let me give two examples from this week: Last Saturday I had a letter from some organisation called askMID. The letter stated that I had a vehicle (a Harley Sportster, in fact) that did not appear on something called the Motor Insurance Database. My first thought was 'scam'. However, I googled it and it turns out to be genuine. The threatening tone of the letter suggests that I will be prosecuted unless I (a) insure my bike, or (b) if it is insured, then contact my insurer and make them put it on the database.
Still with me? Ok, it is insured. I phone Harley Insurance, waited 20 minutes listening to sh1t music and talked to someone. They assured me it would be sorted after the w/end. It wasn't. What do I do now? Apparently I can be prosecuted because my insurance company haven't done as they should have, in spite of direct instructions from me. My natural inclination is f*ck the government and f*ck their stupid laws, how dare they. Take me to court.
Second example: We live on Dartmoor. There is no TV signal here. When we had building work done in 2012 we had to take down the satellite dish the previous owners installed. In spite of having cables installed as part of the building work, we have never attached another satellite dish. An aerial doesn't work here and anyway we haven't got one. We don't stream live TV to any device. Some months back The Lovely Sharon contacted the TV licensing people and said thanks for the renewal notice but we haven't watched live TV for some years and don't intend to do so from now on either. So please cancel our TV licence. There followed a number of reminders culminating in a very threatening letter today. TLS phoned them and gave them a piece of her mind. The response was that they would send someone round to check we weren't watching telly. WTF??!!! Who do these people think they are? They were told that they could send whoever they like but that unless accompanied by a police officer and a court order they would be trespassing. Damn their bastard eyes.
This sort of stuff raises my blood pressure. How do we deal with these people? Complaining seems to make no difference. They have automated scripts that spew out the "I'm sorry you found us all to be f*ck-wits, we do our best to ensure that the piss-poor service we provide is of the highest possible standard", pick-list responses that are meaningless. The only thing I can think of doing is writing to my MP. That way I know that some admin person at the MP's office will forward my letter to the offending organisation with a request for a response. It'll cause them a little bit of grief, make me feel better for having f*cked with them, but ultimately, achieve nothing.
Where I start to fall out with the role of government and government bodies is when they start to interfere in my private affairs. What especially pi$$es me off is when they do so in an officious, threatening and bullying way which assumes that they have the authority to direct my life and that I am some sort of criminal.
Let me give two examples from this week: Last Saturday I had a letter from some organisation called askMID. The letter stated that I had a vehicle (a Harley Sportster, in fact) that did not appear on something called the Motor Insurance Database. My first thought was 'scam'. However, I googled it and it turns out to be genuine. The threatening tone of the letter suggests that I will be prosecuted unless I (a) insure my bike, or (b) if it is insured, then contact my insurer and make them put it on the database.
Still with me? Ok, it is insured. I phone Harley Insurance, waited 20 minutes listening to sh1t music and talked to someone. They assured me it would be sorted after the w/end. It wasn't. What do I do now? Apparently I can be prosecuted because my insurance company haven't done as they should have, in spite of direct instructions from me. My natural inclination is f*ck the government and f*ck their stupid laws, how dare they. Take me to court.
Second example: We live on Dartmoor. There is no TV signal here. When we had building work done in 2012 we had to take down the satellite dish the previous owners installed. In spite of having cables installed as part of the building work, we have never attached another satellite dish. An aerial doesn't work here and anyway we haven't got one. We don't stream live TV to any device. Some months back The Lovely Sharon contacted the TV licensing people and said thanks for the renewal notice but we haven't watched live TV for some years and don't intend to do so from now on either. So please cancel our TV licence. There followed a number of reminders culminating in a very threatening letter today. TLS phoned them and gave them a piece of her mind. The response was that they would send someone round to check we weren't watching telly. WTF??!!! Who do these people think they are? They were told that they could send whoever they like but that unless accompanied by a police officer and a court order they would be trespassing. Damn their bastard eyes.
This sort of stuff raises my blood pressure. How do we deal with these people? Complaining seems to make no difference. They have automated scripts that spew out the "I'm sorry you found us all to be f*ck-wits, we do our best to ensure that the piss-poor service we provide is of the highest possible standard", pick-list responses that are meaningless. The only thing I can think of doing is writing to my MP. That way I know that some admin person at the MP's office will forward my letter to the offending organisation with a request for a response. It'll cause them a little bit of grief, make me feel better for having f*cked with them, but ultimately, achieve nothing.