Dear Sirs,
I’m in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe this. How is it that Sky Television has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a satellite dish from them back in 1977, and yet, the British Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date?
For [goodness sake], do you guys do this by hand? My birth date you have on my pension book, and it is on all the income tax forms I’ve filed for the past 30 years. It is on my National Health card, my driving license, my car insurance, on the last eight damn passports I’ve had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I’ve had to fill out before being allowed off the plane over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms.
Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother’s name is Mary Anne, my father’s name is Robert and I’d be abso-[ruddy]-lutely astounded if that ever changed between now and when I die!
I apologise. I’m really hacked off this morning. Between you and I, I’ve had enough of this bullshit! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my [ruddy] address!
What is going on? Do you have a gang of Neanderthals working there? Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don’t want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for [goodness] sake. I just want to go and park my arse on some sandy beach somewhere. And would someone please tell me, why would you give a shit whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, you’d be the last people I’d want to tell!
Well, I have to go now, because I have to go to the other end of this poxy city to get another copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of £30. Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day?
Signed
An Irate Citizen.
P.S. Remember what I said above about the picture and getting someone to confirm that it’s me? Well, my family has been in this country since 1776 ………. I have served in the military for something over 30 years and have had full security clearances over 25 of those years enabling me to undertake highly secretive missions all over the world.
……… However, I have to get someone ‘important’ to verify who I am – you know, someone like my doctor – WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN GERMANY!