Thank you for your input Colin, currently we have some very demanding issues and policies to worry about ie: the global economic crisis, natural disasters, decreasing environmental damage and promoting sustainable ways of living, crime and policing, defending our country from the onset of terrorism, deficit reduction and energy and climate change to name but a few. Obviously since reading your post we realise it is much more important that we drop these current concerns and solely focus on ensuring you do not receive unwanted telephone calls in the future.
I just ignore any call that comes up withheld,, unknown or that start with something like 20347 etc the answer machine helps pretend I'm out and I can see who calls by the caller display I registered with the telephone preference service but that doesn't work much so I think it's best to just ignore ,, if it's the hospital or dentist for example they should leave a message anyway or simply not use withheld numbers in the first place