Peter Rhodes on ghouls, volunteers and jumping through hoops for a card
I wrote recently about the thieves, ghouls and assorted “scum” who stole from the dead during the 1940s Blitz. It happens in peacetime, too. A reader tells me his sister-in-law was killed in a motorway crash. When her belongings were later handed over to her husband, some cash and credit cards were missing; some of the cards were later used fraudulently. As my reader puts it: “Scum doesn't begin to describe them.”
In an idle moment I decided to apply for the Veteran Card which, according to Whitehall: “Provides a memento of service and signifies your belonging to the Armed Forces community,” and, all being well, may entitle former regulars and reservists to discounted travel and other bargains.
Two hours later, after two online attempts, many security questions, several passwords and a clutch of activation codes (which can take several minutes to arrive on your mobile but vanish after just15 minutes), I terminated my application.
