{"id":1748,"date":"2011-09-18T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T07:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/?p=1748"},"modified":"2014-04-02T15:31:49","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T14:31:49","slug":"18-september-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/2011\/09\/18\/18-september-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"18 September 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning and apologies for the absence of any \u201cnews\u201d last weekend. As most of you will know, I\u2019ve been somewhat distracted and\/or otherwise occupied over the past couple of weeks. And, it may be a few more weeks before everything gets back to \u201cnormal\u201d here (whatever that is). So, count yourselves lucky that the News is not befouling your inbox on a more regular basis for the time being.<\/p>\n

However, there were just two little examples of the success or otherwise of British bureaucracy that I thought I would share with you this weekend.<\/p>\n

You will remember that I recently had to submit certified documentary evidence of my advanced age in order to receive the generous Winter Fuel Allowance<\/a> kindly provided by the People\u2019s Republic of Great Britain to those of us aged 60 or more. You will also remember that now that I have reached that exalted age, I am also entitled to a concessionary bus pass<\/a> allowing me to take advantage of free off-peak travel on the nation\u2019s buses (England only). I duly jumped through the various hoops and have been awaiting the arrival of the appropriate documentation.<\/p>\n

Not being fully convinced of the efficiencies of either government department, I set myself a reminder to \u201cchase\u201d things up should the relevant documentation fail to arrive.<\/p>\n

Now, before you continue reading you should (a) remind yourself of what was required in each instance by clicking the links above and then (b) complete the poll below. Now I am trusting you to complete the poll before reading the outcome below. Go on, don\u2019t spoil the fun.<\/p>\n

\n

[poll id=”2″]<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

To keep you amused in the meantime, here\u2019s a cartoon from Calvin and Hobbes which is appropriate for those of you with young children and\/or young grandchildren or those of you about to become either parents of young children and\/or grandparents of young children. Do not let young children try this at home!<\/p>\n

\n

\"Having<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m sure it\u2019s neither safe nor hygienic.<\/p>\n

Have you answered the poll?<\/p>\n

The answer, I\u2019m afraid, was option three \u2013 the bus pass came through much to my surprise while the Winter Fuel Allowance certified documentation was never received at the appropriate offices. So, it\u2019s back to the Job Centre in Banbury clutching my passport and driving license (again). They will need to make copies and certify them as accurate. However, this time I have been advised not to trust them to post the relevant certified copies to the relevant government department but to do so myself. Is it any wonder that I was reluctant to send them the originals!<\/p>\n

If you want a job done you need to do it yourself, it seems!<\/p>\n

Love to you all,<\/p>\n

Greg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning and apologies for the absence of any \u201cnews\u201d last weekend. As most of you will know, I\u2019ve been somewhat distracted and\/or otherwise occupied over the past couple of weeks. And, it may be a few more weeks before everything gets back to \u201cnormal\u201d here (whatever that is). So, count yourselves lucky that the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “18 September 2011”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w76b-sc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}