DWP

As the Gorse Fox approached his state pension age he has been contacted by the DWP  and given the option to claim it (he discussed this before).

The first time he tried he was directed to the Government Gateway site where he had to fill in some information and then, on pressing "Continue" the site said it  couldn't complete the request.

The Gorse Fox left it a week and the following Saturday went through the same process again. Again it failed.

He left it until Monday and this time it worked fine. His interim conclusion was that the Government's 24x7 DWP website only actually works during the week. The fact that it had worked meant that a secret activation code would be sent, by post, to the Gorse Fox. This would enable hime to complete his registration with DWP and claim his pension.

The code duly arrived.

With a degree of excitement** the Gorse Fox sat down this morning to complete the process. He logged in and again followed the process. This time he was able to confirm that he had the activation code. The code was entered and "Continue" pressed. At this point the page crashed with an HTTP Error 500.

By this point the Gorse Fox was getting a bit hacked off with DWP's ability and thanks the Lord that every time he was invited or requested to go and work on that account - he resolutely refused.

He phoned the help desk and after 12 minutes a human clicked onto the line and asked him what the problem was. He explained. "Are you using Firefox or Chrome?" she asked. "Safari" he replied. There was a long pause. "I'll just check" she said and then told the Gorse Fox to close the browser, wait for two hours, then open up a private browser window and start the process again.

The Gorse Fox waited.

With a degree of trepidation he opened the private browser window and started the process again. Voila, this time it worked... and that annoyed the Gorse Fox even more. What sort of Government site is that badly written that you have perform such unnatural acts to get it to work... but doesn't even give you a hint in advance that these unnatural acts are necessary.

At least his pension is now activated and payment will start at his next birthday.

** Excitement is, of course, a relative term.

Methinks..

The Gorse Fox has been watching with interest the furore that has surrounded the size of Fred Goodwin's £690k+ pension. The issue, of course, is that he presided over the debacle that was the RBS.

Why this interests GF is he suspects this is classic misdirection. If everyone is focussed on Fred Goodwin and his pension, nobody is focussing on the pensions that MPs and PMs award themselves... and this PM and his wretched governmment were probably far more culpable for the situation in which we find ourselves than Goodwin. (And he sold the UK Gold Reserves at the bottom of the market leaving us little to fall back upon).

End of Peer

Great quote from Peter Hitchins in the Mail:

Actually, it is still not too late to bring back Hereditary Peers, decent incorruptible old coves who have Britain in their bones and blood. Why do we believe that "democracy" is the answer to everything when it so frequently elevates idiots and crooks to power?

Trough

The Gorse Fox mentioned it a couple of days back, but it seems to have reached the news media, finally. The Telegraph observes 

MPs' expenses will be made exempt from Freedom of Information laws, prompting claims that Commons' authorities are trying to keep secret the full scale of their claims

and claim that that the announcement was an attempt to bury the news on the day that Heathrow's 3rd runaway was announced. It went on: 

"Chief constables, local authority chief executives, senior BBC executives and others have to release their individual expenses claims, and that should be the case for MPs too."

The Times also picks up the cudgel and observes:

MPs threw out tougher rules in July last year when the vast majority of Members – 146 of the 172 – who voted to keep the allowance, described as the “John Lewis list”, were Labour, including 33 ministers.

Mmmm, the Gorse Fox wonders what that tells you about our egalitarian, socialist overlords.

Finally, Peter Oborne in the Mail has his say in a paragraph headed ".... and talking of people feathering their nests", but before dealing with the FOI controversy he adds:

On Monday, we learned that - at a time when most people's pension funds are collapsing and government ministers refuse to compensate the victims of the Equitable Life scandal - MPs have poured in a further £2.2 million of taxpayers' money to shore up their pension scheme.

And people wonder why some politicians are held in such low esteem

Move along the trough

It looks like the MPs are up to their tricks. According to Boing Boing 

"Harriet Harman MP plans to use a special parliamentary order that can become law within 24 hours after being debated by MPs and peers next week. It will exempt details of all MPs' and peers' expenses from being disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, and nullify all past requests by journalists and campaigners to get them published".

So this looks like it will be rushed through to prevent too much furore as the bill gets signed. Can this Government actually get any more seedy?

Far be it

In fact very far be it from the Gorse Fox to defend members of this corrupt, vexatious government, but the Gorse Fox foes think this nonsense over Wendy Alexander resigning is wrong.
If she checked with Holyrood officials regarding the donations and they said the need not be declared, and if the Scottish parliamentary standards commissioner said they should be treated as gifts... then it is not she who should resign but rather the Scottish parliamentary standards commissioner and the Holyrood officials who gave the incorrect advice.

Passport

The Urban-cub needed a new passport. She phoned and made an appointment to get it seen to at the Passport Office in London today. What would she need?

• The current passport
• A form of picture id
• Proof of residence (e.g two utility bills) etc.

What about a photo? she asked. She was assured this wasn't necessary if her appearance hadn't changed.

The Gorse Fox accompanied her arriving at the Passport Office 20 minutes or so before the appointment. (It's such a good idea to have timed appointments).

"Good morning, I have an appointment at 1:15, is there somewhere I can fill in the form, or do I do that during the appointment?" seemed like a polite query to open proceedings.

"Over there" came the reply and so we stood (there were no chairs) by a 3 in shelf trying to fill in an A4 application form.

Having filled it in we went back and asked where to go, and were told that U-c had to go up by herself. GF explained he would be paying for it, so where should he pay?

"Go and get the cash from Victoria Station" he was told and ushered to the door with U-C. GF has learnt over the years that it is pointless arguing with jobsworths and it was very clear that this part of the Passport Office was inhabited solely by jobsworths.

As he made his way to the station he mulled over the fact that he was actually paying for the Home Office and its staff and it was clear they had no idea how to deal with the public (their employers). Needless to say he had to queue at the ATM but was soon back at the door with Urban-cub, and still early for the interview.

As she moved forward GF was blocked off and told he had to wait, but when he went to wait at the area marked "Meeting and Greeting". The jobsworth bore down on him. Apparently the sign is irrelevant, the Gorse Fox was not allowed to remain in the building. By this point GF was barely maintaining his equanimity and walked out without comment.

remember the Gorse Fox say what a good idea the appointments are? Well forget it - there were loads of people with the same time slot so U-c had to wait further until being seen.

"Where's you photo?" she was asked. She patiently explained the instructions she had been given last weekend and was told "You need a photo, there's a machine downstairs". Now U-c was getting cross, but maintained her civility and asked if she could get change for a £5 note. "No, we don't give change" a woman nearby (almost in tears from her encounter) came to U-c's aid. As Urban-cub walked down the stairs a couple of staff called out sarcastically "Missed your appointment?" she asked them what business it was of theirs and carried on to get the photo.

Over an hour after she went up she finally emerged. The pent up fury was clear... and shared. She commented, through gritted teeth, about the disgusting way in which people were treated and how rude the staff were. GF couldn't bring himself to discuss it.

It was the most disgraceful display of the utter disdain with which certain parts of government treat perfectly innocent and civil members of the public.