Bureaucracy is rife, particularly in Northern Ireland ( which is a part of the UK ), in fact the entire economy is built on Bureaucracy. Government departments have been the biggest employer here.

Some of the bureaucratic things they do is just absurd. For example, I have to purchase annual road tax for my car. Usually its no probs, you can phone a call center and pay over the phone after they do some "background checks".

I phoned to renew as usual yesterday, but was told they could not give me road tax because my car is due for an MOT (road worthiness test) in May. Now my current MOT is valid until 30th April, but because they can't predict whether it will pass or fail, they won't sell me my road tax renewal (or let me pay tax to them for the upkeep of the roads :-o )...which they sold me last year no problem with similar circumstances, seems they have just added a little more red tape to be sure :-)...

I could list several other interesting bureaucratic nuances, in fact you could probably write a book on it....