Another thank-you to Danny for this fascinating account of a long and varied career-or should that be carreer, or even car'ere
I spent my teens and twenties in Sarfend, watched the VAT HQ being built on Victoria Circus and noted they left lights on at night,so the illuminated windows spelt V A T several storeys hight, many storeys high.
Moving on ,and up-country, I bought a small garage in a village which was a posh commuter dorm for Oldham and Manchester. fuel was dispensed from ancient clock-face pumps.
One evening, dispensing fuel, I gazed at the car's parcel-shelf a selection of "absorbing" C&E VAT publications were interspersed with copies of Private Eye.
Brightly, I said to the owner, " VATMAN is humourless and only he would choose to read that stuff, As an "Eye" reader, you must , therefore be self-employed". He laughed and said "NO! I'm actually a VATman!!!!
Wasn't you, Danny? around 1980? (Apologies for thread-drift)