Sure fine looking

One of the many things I used to love about Glasgow was the cat and mouse game of placing the cone on the Duke of Wellington's head but now I'm a bit upset to find that they don't even bother removing the cone any more. They caved.

Not as upset as the completely shit service at the Glasgow Passport Office. As a crystallisation of every sort of petty officialdom it's hard to beat. There's the airport grade metal detector at the door - all that pocket emptying and pat down for no obvious reason; the attempt by the "security" staff to hang on to my camera (you're not allowed to take photo. OK, I'll not take any photos but I'm not leaving my camera here), the insistence that mobile phones should be off (not just switched to Airplane mode so you can't even read. It's the Data Protection Act because phones have cameras and can record. Eh? Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I haven't read the Data Protection Act?), that you can't use a laptop (eh? What the fuck's that about?). But worst - the surly, unpleasant, humourless staff who seem to treat everyone with complete indifference, bordering on contempt. If that's the front line public servants whose pensions I'm supposed to sympathise about, they lost my vote today. If that 15 minute wait, staring into space before the two minutes of service, which runs to being ignored and then instructed to sign here, tick here and here and come back in four hours, qualifies as a "premium service" worth £129.50 they need to be privatised. I'm glad it'll be another 10 years before I need to see their ignorant, scruffy, unshaved faces again.