I had hoped that with the demise of our last government, we would see an end to the sort of box ticking incompetence of officialdom we have sadly become accustomed to.

Perhaps it will just take time for those officials to realise their time is up?

I've faced three situations this week that have resorted to me pulling at my hair in sheer frustration at the inability to use a bit of common sense.

At a security check desk at London City Airport I had to contend with an over officious idiot who decided he was going to painstakingly empty every bit of my laptop bag at a snail's pace despite my telling him my flight was being called and urging some haste. I missed my flight, had to take a different flight and then a train, to get home in the early hours of the following day. Thank you so much City Airport security who would have won the Jobsworth's award if it hadn't been for my bank!

Last weekend I was in Krakow, Poland for the latest AREA general assembly (where I was elected as president). On the Saturday evening, I went to a cash machine to get some cash out for dinner only for my card to be rejected. When I got home two days later there were five automated messages on my answering machine from my bank asking me to call their security team in case the attempt was fraudulent.

Now this is the first piece of incompetence from my bank. They should probably remain nameless for legal reasons. Let's just say that they clearly lost the "habit" when they were bought out last year. If their security team actually called people, instead of using automated messages, they may have been able to use some common sense and ascertain that I wasn't at home to take their calls because I was in Poland without any cash!

So I called the customer services number to complain on Monday - only to receive the sort of script reading robot we have become all too familiar with in recent years. He insisted that I had to call them every time I go overseas and thought I was being cheeky when I referred to him as my travel secretary - I wonder why! So I told him I wanted to make an official complaint and he took down details telling me I'd be called back within 48 hours - 120 hours later and still waiting.

Having just tried to use my bankcard to pay for a carry out dinner, only to have it declined (again!), I called the bank on the "customer services" number on the reverse. To really rub salt into the wounds of embarrassment we all feel from time to time when faced with a declined bank transaction, an automated message kept telling me how much I was in credit and how much I could withdraw today.

So you press "1" to speak to a human being, only to get through to yet another box ticking robot without the capacity to use his grey matter. After taking all the normal security details before he could speak to me (full name, address, postcode, date of birth, mother's maiden name, shoe size, etc.) he then asked me to confirm if my card had been used in the last seven days. Because I couldn't think of any transactions he said he couldn't speak to me.

So basically my short-term memory loss brought on by the bank's inability to use any common sense means that I'm a security risk now. It's a wonder I have any hair left after this week's brushes with incompetence. Really, things can only get better.....