Unable to contact National Security

At a number in your accounts division I was given a PBX number to call at the Waterfront Complex, which has an automated PBX message that directed me to a non-answering number.

A subsequent attempt resulted in me being cut off when I actually managed to get a human voice helping me.

Finally, I was directed to the lifeguard division. The person at the other end disavowed all knowledge of what I was enquiring about and suggested I contact the permanent secretary at Abercromby Street, for which he did not have a number. This I tried to do but at 10.45 am nobody was answering the phone and I had to go out.

So after having wasted my morning I was still unable to contact National Security.

Do you think you have a slight problem here? I might even have had an urgent message but couldn’t deliver it. (It is actually an administrative matter.) Don’t feel alone though, it’s the same in all government departments.

But I thought in view of the crime situation some priority might be given to National Security.

I was quite wrong in this assumption.

Reg Potter Glencoe