Entry for 17th November, 2007

I have been trying to sell a few shares which I’ve had for three years and which are a total nuisance to me whenever I have to do my tax return. It is almost impossible to sell them. Thus far I’ve had to telephone several different departments, send off two separate forms, and now I’ve had to dispatch my passport and driving licence to somewhere in England.
This has all happened since the War of Terror began as far as I can tell, and I sometimes wonder if it is all a bit of an overreaction. I know that we have had some terrible acts of terrorism in the UK recently, but isn’t it the case that we have always been facing some enemy or other over the years, be it the IRA or the communists or the Nazis?
It appears to me that I now need to provide identification for almost every transaction that I’m involved in. It has got to the point where I will not be surprised if I pop into Greggs for half a dozen well-fired rolls and a yum yum, and I am faced with a request for my passport, a DNA swab and a urine sample.
Osama must be sitting in his cave, quietly happy at the way that we are being silently but effectively smothered under layers of bureaucracy.