Cash should STILL be king.

For many years when in the area, I have been visiting a small independent coffee shop in the vicinity of Forest Hill in south-east London.

St. David, a tiny little place with steamed up windows, decent coffee roasted by Square Mile of Bethnal Green, a variety of breakfasts and cakes... the usual bill of fare for such places. I have always mentioned it to anyone who has asked for recommendations.

I was at a loose end today, waiting for some Airbnb-ers to turn up for my daughter's flat, they were late and so I went for a stroll, decided to go and have a cup of coffee.

Imagine my surprise, when I read a notice on the door...

                                                                  "CARD ONLY"

I thought, why would that be? I sometimes see the other thing, because the card machine has broken, or there is a network/internet/comms issue, but this was new to me. Maybe I am getting too old for my own good?

I went inside and asked a staff member, and she said... "That's right, we don't take cash...only cards."

I was so shocked, I failed to enquire further, I just turned on my heels and walked away.

I was walking along, thinking about this, when I decided that I wanted to know more, and I wanted a photo, so I turned around and made my way back.

I took a couple of little snaps and then walked in, I asked the same lady if she knew why the cafe was no longer taking cash. I quickly realised that she was the owner, and it was her decision, so straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

It is more convenient, she said, the banks have gone from the area, meaning Forest Hill, indeed more like a hundred yards... there are loads of the things within a mile.

Then she added, that she had installed a new iPad style card system, which made it cheaper for her to bank her takings. She didn't have to bother with mundane activity like counting her takings, or the huge effort of driving about a mile with a bag of cash.

I pointed out to her, that I thought that this was very bad, that cash was legal tender and that I didn't necessarily want to involve the banks and the government and a hundred different nosy buggers, just to have a cup of coffee and a cake.

She said that she understood that it might not be good for people "like me"... not sure what that meant, but charitably I stated that I had several debit and credit cards, but just didn't see the need to abolish cash from my pocket, simply because this was something that I had and made use of sometimes. I deliberately carry cash for those small things, like cups of coffee and groceries, indeed most things that are available on the ever shrinking high streets.

I told her that I would be writing something about it, fortunately for her, nobody will read this, but it makes me feel better :)

I made my exit, and resolved never to go in there again, and I won't...  Neither will I recommend it any more.

I wandered along the road and spent a fiver (in cash) on a coffee and cake at a new, more accommodating coffee shop, that was packed as opposed to sparsely populated like St. David.

The point of course of writing about this, is that this silly woman is playing right into the hands of the bankers, the politicians, the corporates and everything else that is rotten.

Perhaps she should read that great feminist tract by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale which begins when the main character realises that she has had her financial independence curtailed because she failed to submit to the authorities. Her debit/credit card has been cancelled since she was needed for the purposes of breeding.

What the bureaucrats wanted, the bureaucrats got, by force if necessary.