Bit strange that – if you don’t drive (and as a community, journalists include a remarkably high proportion of non-drivers in their number), and you don’t travel, Midland Bank Plc doesn’t want you as a customer, regardless of how much you earn or how much other identification you have: it will accept nothing apart from a valid driving licence or a current passport as identification – and even if one does have a passport, it is a valuable document and not something you want to use for anything so trivial as opening a bank account; and no, that is not a reason for everyone to have to carry a national identity card do you want to have to trail round to a police station when you’re very busy just because a bored policeman stopped you for want of anything better to do on a hot day when you happen to have dashed out and left your card back in the office with your jacket?
