TV Licence

My TV licence is due for renewal, but this time it is different in that I will be 75 before next September, so I only need one for part of the year.
With the renewal form comes a leaflet, in which it mentions the subject in passing, but no-where does it tell you how to apply!
Reluctantly, I rang the number given for English speakers (there are several numbers offering a choice of language). After the usual "Press 1  for this and press 2 for that", (strange how the one you want is always last), and noting that the call would be recorded for "Training" purposes, I got through to an idiot a person.
Having asked him to speak a bit louder and clearer, he proceeded treat me as if I was stupid. For some reason he couldn't understand that I didn't have my old licence to hand (I wonder how many people can find it?) If he'd mentioned that the number was on the renewal form, it would have been more useful.
Then came the question "Do you know your date of Birth?". I explained, that after almost 75 years, I felt that I did know it, but of course it was only hearsay, as I was relying on what my mother had told me!
In due course he wanted my card number which I refused, pointing out that his organisation was one of those who were responsible for the closure of my local post office by no longer being prepared to pay them for doing the job, and that I would be paying by cheque as usual, which I hoped would cost them more to administer than they would have paid the post office! I await a revised renewal form, meanwhile my money is in my bank.

Grumpy? What me? - I felt quite happy after these exchanges. I resented the assumption that because I'm a bit deaf an couldn't understand his accent, I must be stupid.

Incidentally, I would urge anyone who no longer has a post office where they might have paid for their Licence to pay by cheque. This taking work away from the post offices by government departments, at the same time that they are being paid a subsidy to keep open, is typical of all governments' joined up thinking.

A Corrupt Country

One gets very little encouragement concerning the future of this country from reading today's newspapers.
The main headline in the Daily Telegraph show how the figures have been fixed by Post Office workers to show that mail delivery times are meeting their targets when anyone who receives any significant amount of mail clearly realises that they are not! Management denies that they were involved in this fixing - but as their bonuses depend upon the "performance figures", they would, wouldn't they! This comes on top of an inflation busting pay and conditions award secured this week by the Unions.

Next comes their secondary headline; Baroness Uddin is to escape prosecution for naming a rarely used,  empty property in Maidstone as her main residence and claiming expenses for a property which any reasonable person, except the House of Lords authorities, would consider to be her main residence. These "authorities" which seem to be as corrupt as some of the "Lords", apparently consider that it is only necessary to visit a property once a month for it to qualify!

Moving inside the paper we discover that the "National Association of Muslim Police" received a grant of £90,000 in the last two years, whilst the "Christian Police Association" got a grant of only £15,000. Both have about 2000 members. As a Christian I resent the blatant discrimination against Christians, but as a taxpayer, I resent even more that either group should receive any public money whatsoever.

Further on their is a piece about yet another victim being made into a criminal by our "Human Rights" obsessed police force service. Yet another businessman, in this case a restaurant owner, was arrested and held in custody for five hours (and had his fingerprints and DNA taken) because he detained two teenagers whom he caught breaking into his beer cellar.

This is not the England in which I was born and brought up, it seems to be some alien country!