Freelance workers of the world, it's tough out there

[Thomzo]

[Stonehead]

Nobody's ugly enough for the Revenue, Stonehead

I am—and that was even before I had my front teeth taken out. I'm worse now!

Seriously, when we lived in Yorkshire we were having major problems with the Revenue. They owed us a serious wedge of money and despite the intervention of our MP and various other parties, we were getting nowhere.

So I emailed the Revenue a draft press release, which detailed a press call I'd be holding at one of their main offices, during which I would superglue myself naked to their front door. I had a phone call within 30 minutes from a very senior manager saying there was no need for me to go to such "extreme measures" and pledging that a cheque would be hand delivered to me within 24 hours. It was.

It probably helped that several friends who worked in the national press phoned the Revenue's press team within minutes of my sending the email, asking if the rumours of a man threatening a "stick up" were true! It would have made a great headline.

[Flo]

Yep that sounds the sort of thing that just sometimes has to be done. It's the style with which you do it and the resources that you have for backup (like press contacts) that are the essentials. The tale made me laugh. Similar to a farmer who drove his loaded muck spreader down Todmordon high street many moons back - shame it got stuck in spreading mode and got both the offending bank and the offending traffic warden