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Listener Colin Hoskins has been a public servant for the last 30 years. He wrote:

"My Collins dictionary has four definitions for 'bureaucracy', only one of which is perjorative: 'Any administration in which action is impeded by unnecessary official procedures and red tape.'

Nevertheless, I never hear it used by politicians in anything other than a perjorative sense, as in 'we have too many bureaucrats and not enough doctors/nurses/teachers'.

This seems to me either a lazy view of the world, or an easy political hit against a workforce largely unable to defend itself."

What's your experience of bureaucracy? Are you a so-called 'bureaucrat' fed up with bad press? Or do you drown in red tape and pointless documents filled out in triplicate? Share what you know about the love/hate affair we have with 'penpushers'. Email ipm [at] bbc.co.uk

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