Our Local Government Staff

I went to a village in Buckinghamshire to see my dearest and her neighbour. It was supposed to be a "short" visit BUT as always ten minutes turned out to be one hour and beyond, within this period, we had consumed bottles of wine, and tons of unhealthy snacks. But having not seen both for months (3 in fact), we are excused from indulging in life's little albeit unhealthy pleasures. From one conversation we went into another and another and another and THEN, she started talking about her call to her local authority about the wasps' nest she found in her loft. She was told that it will cost £38 or about US$70. She then asked if there are discounts for pensioners - my friend is a 66 year old retired illustrator. She was told that there are no discounts for pensioner, but then the lady on the telephone went on to ask her if she was unemployed, she replied that she is retired, the local government official went on to ask her a series of questions: is she pregnant, is claiming income support and a series of other ridiculous questions.

My friend clearly stated her age and current status, i.e., that she is retired. But our inept local government official was more concerned about reading out what was on the screen rather than listen to her. Today, many of our local government staff behave like robots and cannot think for themselves. Interesting that these men and women make decision about our daily lives.