Cash is king when technology fails

There has been lots of talk lately about moving to a cashless society. Heaven forbid!

Look at the way cash has been used through history plus the utilisation of the Royal Mint! Will that diminish? What about the hordes of coins found by metal detectorists!

Will they say, “We’ve found a box of old payment cards, they aren’t worth anything but they used these in the old days.”

Cash is dirty it is said! No dirtier than newspapers! How do you give a tip to the waiter after your meal etc?

Does every ‘Homeless Person’ on the street have to invest in a ‘Card Machine’ so that you can give him/her a £1? Do they say, “Got any spare cards mate for a coffee”?

How about some Toilet Facilities whereby a charge of 20p is required? It’s not recognised my card, meanwhile, I’ve wet myself!

How do you ‘Tip’ the Postman, your favourite Delivery Driver and your Refuse Collectors at Christmas’? “Hello driver, have you got a card machine’? “You may have to give the others their share in whatever way you can, unless you all have a card machine each”!

How do I give, say £10 each to my Grandchildren on their Birthdays? Does every charity collecting on the street have to have a card machine? How about, ‘Card machine not working in car parks/parking metres’!

What about a shop insisting on ‘Card Payments Only’, then the card machine breaks down so we resort to ‘Cash Payments Only’!

Using cards, some people are liable to ‘overspend’ and create debt!

What about an ‘outage’ as happened in Twickenham with small businesses being affected a while ago and lasted for two weeks whereby the card machine could not be used? What about ‘Power Cuts’ no access to card payments, ‘Cash is King’?

I understand that a recently resigned executive of the Banking and Finance Industry said, “The Banking and Finance Industry is committed to ensuring that access to cash remains free and widely accessible to all when needed!

Moving to a ‘Cashless Society’! Think again!

Chris Gleed

Proud Close

Purton

Lockdown will do more harm than good

Although I am nearer the end game than the beginning in this dimension. As a father, grandfather and great grandfather. I care for our future generations. Don't we all?

A national TV programme on Monday night illustrated the true facts of Covid -19.Where in my opinion the shambolic attempt to curtail it is doing more harm than the virus itself.

A restaurant in Manchester one of our major cities advertised a job for a server on the minimum wage.They received over nine hundred applications when normally it would have been about thirty. Airline staff, cruise ship workers as well as restaurant managers sent their CVs.Selection got down to two. Then the new Lockdown made the job disappear.

May I suggest that they open a cinema and fill it with our Honourable members of Parliament and Boris’s boffins. Not one of them losing their jobs, are they? To watch this channel four Dispatches half hour of their disgraceful actions against the freedom of the individual and even more heart breaking.Common sense.

I found this lockdown hard enough during the summer months. I suspect personally it will be more depressing for me and many others during the cold dark winter nights without the sunshine and open air activities that cheer us all up. Readers agreed?

Bill Williams

Merlin Way

Covingham