Here’s something useful to do today. Fill this form in and make a claim against your bank for all the charges they’ve walloped on you in the past six years.

Yes; we all know the internet can be an enormous electronic moaning and whining system. But it is a scandal that anyone can go a few quid over their overdraft limit - which of course we all know about - to then get charged thirty plus pounds from the bank for a ‘letter’. It’s the sense of powerlessness and the knowledge that banks are horribly wealthy institutions.

Which brings us to that last vestige of un-reformed public sector: the civil service, and in particular HM Customs and Excise. If ever there were a more loathsome government department I’ve yet to come across it.

I recieved two letters from the VAT. One says I owe them money; one that they owe me money. I then recieve unpleasant threatening letter saying I owe them another sum of money which is yet a different sum. When I phoned (there is no email) to query this I was subjected to:

1. Are you refusing to pay this?

No; I’m asking what this amount is for.

2. You should know your tax status

Yes; I thought I did and wasn’t aware I owed any tax, that’s why I’m asking for more detail. It would be helpful if you could tell me what this amount relates to.

3. We don’t have to tell you that; you need to pay your tax.

Yes, I know that, and I regularly do; but I’m not that keen on paying a sum of money which is not explained to me

and so it goes on.

So, the claim against banks is a welcome move. If someone can come up with a letter which allows us, the punters, to claim for all the time that insurance claims and tax issues costs us, that would be fantastic.

The other angle on this which is more disturbing is that HM Customs and Excise have presided over two of the biggest frauds in UK history.

The first is the tax credits fiasco which has overpaid around six billion pounds.

The other is the VAT fraud which costs ‘billions’. No-one knows the exact amount.