Typical! Part 1: Having spent all that time and effort being sarcastic to that
waster Purnell, what does he do? He resigns! Now I'll have to deal with a
different Muppet! (Yvette
Cooper who, along with her
husband, another politician called Ed Balls, seems to be even
more corrupt than her predecessor when it comes to parliamentary expenses, if
that's possible!) He hasn't gone quietly, either, suggesting that Chairman
Brown should step down for the good of everybody.
What did make me laugh was that the day after he resigned, a news
reporter was camped outside Purnell's house in his constituency and reported
that people kept stopping and telling him that he was wasting his time as
Purnell had only been seen in his constituency once in the last ten years!
However, on the day that he resigned, I did get a letter from Greg
Clarke, informing me that he had received my letter and that he had written to
the chief executive of the CSA (now called the Child Maintenance and
Enforcement Commission), Stephen Geraghty. This caused me some confusion, as
when I had written to Mary Quinn, both the CSA website and the idiot that I
spoke to stated that Mary Quinn was the chief executive, although I now notice
that the website has been changed, and the Mary Quinn page, although still
claiming that she is chief executive of the CSA, appears in the Department
for Social Development website.
I didn't think that involving my MP would have much effect other
than to get the morons at the CSA to actually do their jobs. But I was wrong,
as I found out when Kevin Maguire phoned me on Friday to inform me that he was
no longer dealing with my case, as it had been passed over to the Earl Luton (I
still think that this could be an alias!) in the parliamentary team.
Whilst I had him on the phone, I also asked Kevin Maguire who his
chief executive was. Just as well it wasn't a life or death question as he told
me both Stephen Geraghty and Mary Quinn before putting me on hold and finding
out before informing me that Mary Quinn is the head of the CSA and Stephen
Geraghty is the chief executive. I'm still none the wiser.
I also had the rather bizarre experience of answering my phone
yesterday to an Irish voice saying 'Hello, my name is Earl.....' However, that
is where the humour ended as this idiot, obviously the Earl Luton that I'd been
told about, informed me that he had taken over my case and had fifteen days
(another CSA three weeks) to respond. More delays, meaning that by the time
that I get this sorted it will be about eight weeks or more since my initial
letter. Not exactly efficient when it states on their website
"It can seem difficult to make a complaint, but we want to make it as easy as possible so we can get things right".
Maybe they should let me design a more truthful website for them,
perhaps
"Do you know an unemployable village idiot? If so, we have vacancies, especially management positions, just for them here at the Child Support Agency. Experience is a definite disadvantage although very low IQ and inability to perform the most simple of tasks will ensure rapid promotion. If they are exceptionally 'special' they will be assigned to our complaints resolution team in an effort to make it as difficult as possible for our incompetence to be exposed".
Earl Luton seemed quite surprised when I informed him that I
expected things to move much faster than he was telling me as it had already
been some time since my original complaint. His plea of it not being his fault
that this process was taking so long was greeted by my informing him that I
didn't care whose fault their inability to actually carry out their job was and that the whole business provided
further evidence of the incompetence of the entire agency and all of its
employees.
Typical! Part 2: When I received the phone call on Friday, I was on a minibus on my
way to the Brecon Beacons having taken the day off to attend the
Army Medical Services TA Patrolling Competition which was taking place in the
Sennybridge training area, although purely in my role as Sqn 2ic, rather than
as a competitor (far too old and unfit for that!)
All week, the weather had been very pleasant, even when we left
the Unit for the six hour drive to Wales, it was still sunny, although it was
getting a bit nippier the further west we went.
We arrived at 8pm and after a briefing, made our way to the main
admin area, where we were eaten alive by midges before the guys headed off and
I headed back to a room in the main camp. After that, it all went downhill.
When I got up on Saturday morning, although the sun wasn't
visible, it was just overcast and colder than the day before. Stupidly, I left
my waterproof in the room in my Bergen. I say stupidly, because no sooner had I
got to the training area and had a briefing than the skies opened. And it
continued to rain for the next 30 hours!
I managed to get round and see the team and met up with one of my
colleagues at lunchtime and we were able to meet up with the team again during
the rest of the day. We were lucky. We were moving from point to point in a
vehicle, with heating and protected from the rain, whereas the teams were
moving on foot.
Inevitably, there were several casualties, quite a few due to the
cold and rain, so the decision was taken by the brass that the teams would be
returned to the main camp, rather than stay out as they were supposed to.
Myself and my colleague waited for the team to return and travelled with them
to Sennybridge Camp before making our way to Brecon to the hotel where we were
staying, The
Castle.
The hotel was very nice and fortunately had working radiators,
which meant that I was able to place my completely soaking wet uniform on them
to dry out. With all the fresh Welsh air of the day and after a couple of pints
in the bar, I slept really well. However, when I woke up, because I'd put the
radiators on full to dry out my uniform, I was drenched!
After breakfast, it was back to the training area for the last of
the events and we left the area at 2pm. And, typically, as we pulled on to the
main road, the cloud cleared, revealing blue sky and sunshine, to the extent
that we had to put the air con on in the car!
The team had done very well, considering that in the main
competitors were from the various Field Hospitals, who have 7-8 times more
personnel than the Squadrons to choose from, and finished higher than many of
the other Squadrons.
So, sixty hours after leaving home, I was back and the process of
sorting out my kit began, ready for the next exercise.
Typical! Part 3: When Alec, my eldest, was thrown out by his mother and moved in
with me, I applied for child benefit. An application went in and then I
received a letter asking for more information and proof that he is still at
school. All this information was sent back to them three weeks ago.
However, last Tuesday there was another letter, identical to the
first, with the words 'Duplicate-please reply' written across the top. Curious
as to why this was sent, I called the number on the letter.
Unfortunately, when I got through and heard the Irish accent my
heart immediately sank. I have nothing against the Irish, but I suspected that
this may indicate that this agency was co-located with the morons of the CSA.
And the woman I spoke to didn't allay my concerns, as every time I asked her a
question or tried to explain to her that I had already sent in the information,
she just kept repeating "You need to complete the form
with the requested information and send it back". I decided to
change tack and asked to speak to the section that was named on the letter.
I was refused access to this section and the woman also refused to
tell me whether or not my previous information had been received, just
repeating "You need to complete the form
with the requested information and send it back".
Eventually, she agreed to inform the relevant section that I had
telephoned and assured me that I would receive a call-back within three working
days, which was Friday.
On Monday, having heard nothing, I telephoned again and spoke to
someone who was much more helpful. What she told me was that it appeared that
the section had indeed received the information that they had requested, but
that it had been 'misplaced'.
When I asked the woman why it was that her colleague hadn't told
me that the information had been lost, she was unable to tell me. She also
pointed out that the information hadn't been lost, it had been 'misplaced'.
When I asked her where it was and she told me that she didn't know, I suggested
that she consult the dictionary and look up the definition of 'lost'.
No comments:
Post a Comment