English Yokel

Yokel is right cheesed off. As Jesus said "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth", so there is great value in giving anonymously.

But can we?

Yokel wanted to send some money to a couple of recipients in the USA. In the olden days, he would have turned up at the Post Office with the necessary sum in £20 notes, paid it over, and after deduction of the appropriate fees for providing the service, would have walked away with an International Money Order in US Dollars. Nowadays, the Post Office has dropped out of the International Money Order system. There was some cry about "modernising" if Yokel remembers correctly. Now, if using the replacement "Moneygram" procedures, one must show a valid passport if paying by cash, and the recipient must be named on the form.

To guard against money laundering, you see. No, Yokel doesn't see as it happens. What Yokel sees is the State wanting a record of where everything went, or who paid what to whom, so that they can be challenged as to why. And it is not just the UK Government that gets to dip into the records. As one knows after the Swift affair, given that the international money transfer servers are in the USA, the US Government gets to see every single transaction between any two countries. So Yokel is busy thinking at the moment. Busy thinking whether he can afford to tell the UK and US governments which bodies he supports. For there will soon come a time in this country when being a Christian will be a criminal offence.

How long before cash is illegal?

PS. According to Yokel's credit card company, the EU Payment Services Directive has made it illegal to pay your credit card bills by cash. If you want to use cash, you must first pay it into a bank account, and then transfer it to the credit card account. Does anyone know if the Directive actually specifies that?