Time and time again I've noticed that retail businesses are replacing people with card only machines. Unfortunately this means that the customers are having to queue for an inordinate length of time to be served by an assistant enabling them to pay by cash as more and more manned tills are closed.

Businesses are forcing the issue of using cards. This is particularly difficult for the disabled and elderly. Not only is this difficult it's not taking into the consideration that technology fails. I witnessed a whole street of shops in our town centre that had lost their Internet connection for 2 days meaning people couldn't use cards.

As many businesses and taxpayer-funded public services are increasingly insisting upon cashless payments, it is important that we safeguard against the potential dangers of this practice. It creates an enforced dependency on banks, even though they cannot always be trusted to act ethically, and is a threat to privacy as people cannot make anonymous ppayments. If a card is stolen someone's whole bank account can be cleared, this can't happen using cash, cash is 'scamless'. If we wish to uphold freedom of choice and the right to privacy, it is imperative that we protect the use of cash.