Six quirks

I was tagged by the delicious Lola to come up with six dodgy facts about myself which few, if any, people know. And believe me, it’s harder than you’d think. Well, if I miss out all the pervy and illegal **** anyway.

Here goes:

  1. When I think nobody’s looking, I still pick my nose and eat it.

  2. I have the least addictive personality I know. I’ve given up drinking (twice), cracking my neck, cracking my knuckles and a few other habits at the drop of a hat for no real reason other than I wanted to. Maybe I should apply it to number 1 above.

  3. I genuinely work better at night. During office hours I tend to do crap all (like now…) then start to genuinely work once everyone else has gone home. I once did a database for a company in Bradford almost 100% overnight while working from home.

  4. I have an unhealthy tendency to skip meals if I’m too busy doing something and then never catch up. The "doing something" usually involves a PC and some antsy little project that’s niggling me.

  5. The idea of having any kind of surgical procedure makes my feel faint. I’ve never had one and only once had the word "surgical" used in my presence by a doctor once, but I almost collapsed. Needles are no problem, blood donation fine, dentists don’t phase me. I can watch opeartions on the TV with no ill-effects. I just don’t like the idea of undergoing it myself.

  6. I keep starting to write books and get bored after the first 2-3 chapters.

To get my revenge, I’m tagging Damo, Babz, Weenie and Andy.

More student loans muppetry

OK, not so bad (I hope) as the faff I had with them a couple of years ago. I notice on the new deferment information letter that they’ve actually included a standard regional phone number for people to call on if they’re outside the UK. Credit to them for adding that to the existing premiumlocal rate number.

I’m still struggling with their use of email, though. First of all you have to determine which of the four offices to email – England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Is it based on where you are currently registered as residing, where you took the loan out, where the uni is based that you were attending…? This isn’t helped by all the mail coming from the central Student Loans Company in Glasgow (mine always has, even when I was in England) while the actual loans company I’m told to mail with account/address detail changes being in Rotherham.

I checked the English one and it was asking for an ID Code I didn’t have. Or maybe I do. There are umpteen codes all over the letter I got, most of them not actually identified themselves.

So I went for the Scots one as you don’t actually have to register to enter their site like you do for the English one. Again it ask for some Student ID that I don’t know if I have or not, but it’s not mandatory.

My query is a simple one – can I fax my deferment details to someone or do I have to mail them? Between the post here and the post in the UK I just don’t trust it to get there within 14 days.

So I sent my mail and got an auto-response… telling me that they endeavour to get back to all general enquiries within fifteen working days. If you’re appealing, they make it 10 working days but all the same this is completely useless. Even ten working days is effectively the same as 14 celendar days, so by the time you have the information you require (assuming, in fairness, they take the maxiumum length – and they only "endeavour" to stay within that limit) you don’t have time to send your stuff in.

Another victory for bureaucracy.

I had some spare time…

And I thought those days were behind me:
98%ALCOHOLIC

20

I got a boost at the end as the last question’s a little ambiguous in my view. It depends who the people in question are… But I went for "one" on the assumption it was someone important, like one of my children.
62%

This could fund my next trip to Vietnam! No… wait…
$4175.00The Cadaver Calculator – Find out how much your body is worth.

Well, it could be worse:
54%

Damn, I thought I could rattle off more!
70

Cool.
133,561 People

UK Government in Illegal Activity Shocker

Or not so shocking given how corrupt the whole ******* lot of them are. It seems they just bribed a bank employee in Lichtenstein with an undisclosed fee (guessed at by reporters as half a million pounds). In exchange for the reddies, the dirty bugger has coughed up a load of information on accounts held by British citizens so that HMRC can then chase them for taxes "to which it is entitled".

They are also quoted as saying that it was seeking “to protect the UK exchequer from those who seek to hide behind secrecy laws”. So, let’s get this straight – they’re saying with that last sentence that they’re aware laws exist, and they ignored (and let’s face it, broke) those laws to get information to which they were not entitled.

Now, excuse me if I put my amateur lawman’s hat on here… but isn’t information gained by unlawful means inadmissible in court? Which means that can’t then legally challenge these individuals for the tax they "owe"? Ever. From my viewpoint, they’ve effectively screwed up any hope they have of charging these people with tax evasion as they now have all the information they required… but illegally. There is no more information they can obtain, all they have is tainted and unuseable… so they’ve done these people a massive favour and set their minds at ease as they’re not safe from prosecution.

I also resent the “to which it is entitled” bit. As a citizen of the UK I feel I’m entitled to a working NHS; to a police force that has the power to prosecute criminals and put them away instead of letting them out after 14 days; to my own privacy; to feel safe walking the streets; to a world-class education system from infant to degree level at no charge; to be able to see a doctor at a time that is convenient to me; likewise a dentist; to have people running my country who don’t give all the cushy tax-dodging jobs to their friends and relatives…

Nothing unreasonable there. I don’t feel that I’m getting any of that. In fact, we seem to be paying more taxes for less return than we ever have in the past. So I say "**** you, UK government" and I’ll be seriously looking for the other two states which class as "uncooperative tax havens" should I ever earn a decent wage.

Assuming I don’t just bugger off to another country where I feel I’m getting better value from the party in power.