Edition 6 - Please Email YOUR Labour MP Today!

Please Email YOUR Labour MP Today!

The Payment Choice Alliance is taking a small stand at The Labour Party Conference next week - to allow us to make a BIG stand against the awful ‘cashless’! We have invited every Labour MP to visit us - BUT you can help, if you have a Labour MP in your constituency, by asking them personally to come to our stand!

You can find your MP’s contact details here.

We suggest you send an email along these lines:

Dear Sir Kier

I am one of your constituents.

I am very worried that ‘cashless’ is being forced on myself and the rest of the British public. I am a supporter of the Payment Choice Alliance, an organisation working to help ensure accepting cash becomes a legal requirement for British businesses, as it already is for businesses in many countries around the world. Please visit the Payment Choice Alliance at Stand H24 of the Labour Party Conference, so that you are fully aware of how important cash is to me and more than 40 million other British citizens.

Kind regards

Your Name

You will need to include your address, so your MP knows you are a constituent. PLEASE do this - it is more important that your MP hears from you than us! Please also copy in ron.delnevo@paymentchoicealliance.org. Ron will follow up personally with every MP written to by Alliance supporters.

Another Small Crack In the Awful ‘Cashless’!

The first ever coffee our Chair Ron Delnevo has bought in Black Sheep Coffee! Paid for with cash, naturally!

Having found a branch that accepts cash - none has done so before - Ron has now written to the CEO of Black Sheep Coffee asking him to confirm that ALL their branches will do so in future!

Another Town Strangled by Bank Branch Closures!

This sign in the window of a retailer in the small but bustling town of Callandar in Scotland. The retailer prefers cash - and makes clear the reasons why. The last bank branch in this town will close in November 2024 - and no ‘bank hub’ is to be provided. Towards the end of the notice you will read that this retailer believes that if businesses take more cash and deposit it via bank branches, whilst also getting coins for their till floats, those branches will stay open. If only …………

The Payment Choice Alliance has travelled up and down the UK, visiting many such towns. There is absolutely NO evidence that how busy a bank branch is dictates whether or not they stay open. Busy branches are being closed.

In this Scottish town there are still over 60 businesses of all kinds - including bakers and butchers - serving their local community. All currently accept cash. But there will soon only be a 5 day a week Post Office, in an off-pitch location, providing face-to-face cash and other banking services. Let’s not mince words, It is an absolute and utter disgrace that communities like this have been deserted by banks. The local public and businesses have been horribly let down. BUT it is NOT too late. ‘Cashless’ WILL be discredited as a concept by the end of 2025 - and community financial service provision WILL be restored. This is what the British Public have made clear to the Payment Choice Alliance that they want - and that is what they are going to get!

New York Is A Wonderful City To Use Cash On Buses!

This link takes you to how a bus fare can be paid for in New York:

Amongst the options listed: Board via the front door. Insert exact change into the farebox.

Now you might be thinking that this would have been a relatively new innovation, insisting on cash being paid in exact fares being a step in the direction of the awful ‘cashless’.

BUT YOU WOULD BE WRONG

2024 marks the 55th anniversary of New York City transit bus drivers no longer having to give change to passengers. August 31st 1969, was the first day bus passengers either had to deposit a subway token or the exact amount in coins directly into the fare box. Drivers were no longer required to give change. AND 55 YEARS ON, CASH CONTINUES TO BE ACCEPTED ON NEW YORK BUSES. As it is on buses around the United States, including Los Angeles. Meantime, this year is the 10th anniversary of the awful Transport for London banning cash use on the Capital’s buses, after a window-dressing ‘public consultation’ conducted by then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

The outright banning of cash by Transport for London was a flagrant betrayal of the London public, both locals and visitors. They could have learned from New York - or nearer to home, the capital of Scotland, the wonderful Edinburgh, where LOTHIAN REGION TRANSPORT LTD run a brilliant bus service and accept cash in the same way as New York. Transport for London colluded with Visa and Mastercard to impose ‘cashless’ on the UK public. The two seemingly all powerful international card schemes can’t get away with this in their home country, but they can inflict it on the UK, where our ‘authorities’ are weak enough to allow it to happen, like in London. On New York buses, ‘cashless’ never had a chance to even draw breath. The Payment Choice Alliance has already stated that ‘cashless’ will be dead in the UK by the end of 2025. AND IT WILL BE.

That is all for this month, but we will be back in October with all the news , including from the Labour Party Conference.

STAY STRONG, TOGETHER WE WILL WIN!

Please Tell Your Friends About The Payment Choice Alliance

The PCA needs all the active supporters we can get! So please tell your friends about YOUR support for the Payment Choice Alliance - and urge them to visit our website to register THEIR support!

THANK YOU.

Take Action to Protect Cash

About Us

The Payment Choice Alliance, founded in 2014 and relaunched in 2023, is a campaigning organisation committed to ensuring the right of the British public to use cash is safeguarded by the passing of a Payment Choice Act.

The Act would give everyone in the UK the right to use their cash, when and where they choose.

The Payment Choice Alliance, which is run by committed volunteers, is also focused on ensuring every community in the UK has convenient cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. The provision of such facilities, along with the legal obligation of businesses to accept cash, will ensure cash remains a viable Payment Choice for the British public for as long as they want to use it.