"O brave new world, That has such people in't!"

Welcome to the New World Order. Erich Honecker would have been pleased with my day. He would have smiled at the intransigence of the apparatchik I confronted. He would have known that all would have been well in the supervision society. The police state could rest at ease knowing that it could inflict misery and loss on the citizen. That power was where it should be, in the hands of the State.

Today I accidentally suffered a bank charge. My operational account is with Natwest, that is RBS. Funnily enough, seeing as how they are bankrupt, I don't trust them and do not leave much headroom in that account and because I got confused about the collection date of a DD and did not have enough funds in the account they bounced it. Fair enough. But what they call the 'service fee' was £38 -thirty-eight quid. Please note I cannot remember the last time I had a penalty charge. So I went and asked for my money back.

Bearing mind that we now own this crock of shit masquerading as a viable business, and that each of us has handed over North of £20,000 to keep it, well trading is not the right word, but you know what I mean, and hence saved all the little smug childish tossers that turn up at these places daily to get in the way, from losing their jobs, one would have thought that a little gratitude was to be expected. Not the abject grovelling gratitude that we actually deserve, but at least a bit of humility.

But, of course, nope. Just arrogance and supercilious smugness. Clearly the clerks have cracked that they are civil servants now and there is no longer any need even to pretend at some small demonstration of customer service. Here we have the first inkling of the kind of State bank we are going to get as Gordon the Moron's meltdown gathers speed.

I console myself by imagining them in the guise of the marketing department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, a bunch of jerks who were first up against the wall when the revolution came.*

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

(PS. I WILL get my money back)

*See the 'Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy'.