Scrutiny in excess

Clare had a nine thirty appointment with the osteoporosis specialist at Llandough Hospital this morning, so following a quick breakfast, I drove her there, then returned home and got to work on an article for the St Andrew's Chaplaincy monthly magazine. I returned to collect her after the appointment, and we drove from there over to the Dunelm Mill store in Newport Road to buy a small folding table for her sewing machine. On the way home we called at Tesco for some petrol as the Polo's tank was almost empty and I didn't want to leave it like that just in case there was an urgent need for someone to use it in my absence. 

Clare then cooked a chick pea curry for lunch while I completed the article I was writing. While I was out walking later in the afternoon, Owain called to let me know about yet another request from Nationwide Building Society to confirm the gifting of funds for a mortgage deposit, and a separate one from Owain's negotiating solicitor. That three processes demanding confirmation of my intent plus verification of my identity and available funds, all of them different. 

This is the new normal in a world where obsession with preventing money laundering challenges us to prove who we are and what assets we have to dispose of with no integration of processes. The government requires we pay taxes, but doesn't demand we show bank statements to prove what we declare. It knows who we are, and whether we can be trusted to behave, and punishes when we don't. 

When it comes to house purchase, something that could and should be done once for the sake of personal security and safety must be done three times over, with triple the risk to an individual. No matter how secure these information services declare themselves to be, with their accreditations and certifications, no digital system is immune to hacking. I am very unhappy there's no alternative but to rely on them in order to help Owain buy his first home, but it has to be done. Meanwhile big time money launderers find other ways to shift ill gotten gains, investing cash in third party businesses, or valuable artefacts bought for money at live auctions, and the such-like.

When I  got back home, I had to download and print two more different forms and fill them in by hand, and then scan them ready to send. The Building Society form design was very user unfriendly with text entry boxes so small it was impossible to print single letters in each one without using a sharp stylus. For someone with poor eyesight or wobbly handwriting, this would be a next to impossible task.  I think it's an inhumane demeaning way to treat people. 

This evening, I watched the week's double episode of 'Silent Witness' on BBC One. It told a story about climate emergency protesters taking dramatic steps to prevent the sacrifice of ancient woodland to a new commercial development and how this resulted in a train crash and three murders, that had less to do with real protesters than it did with family dysfunction. It's a messy old world, as it is, and more than ever, an ailing, vulnerable one.