Well, it has just taken me about an hour to order a new driving licence online - what a palaver!  Of the filling of forms and the proving of identity there is, it seems, no end.  I understand about fraud and identity theft (though surely no one in their right mind would choose to steal an identity so uncommon as mine - there are to my knowledge only one other person with my first/last name combination in the UK and she is less than ten years old!) but what a lot of numbers and juggling and passwords (at least three were entered along the way).  Whatever happened to trust?

While I was at it I thought I'd pay my tax online too - except I didn't have the requisite paperwork with me to prove I was indeed the person who owed just shy of £20, due by 31 Jan 2010.  How nutty is that?!

So, I have obediently bisected both parts of my driving licence and put them in an envelope to send back to DVLA along with the car logbook (which is still only doable the old fashioned way and retains a sense of trust about it) and will pay my tax another day when I have the requisite forms with me.  Progress...?!