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I didn't realise the Spectator had such a good classical music section!

Congrats on VAN hitting 400! That 'sexless' verdict on a Daphnis with acrobats is brutal - like describing a banquet as tasteless.

Excellent preview piece, Lee!

13/ The pandemic forced Exeter Council to stop accepting cash.

But we don’t have to accept this ongoing exclusion.

🌱 Greens are calling for:

A full EQIA on cashless payments.
Reinstating cash payments at leisure facilities.

Let’s make services inclusive for all.

12/ Going cashless affects young people too.

Ron Delnevo from the Payment Choice Alliance said over 50% of pocket money is given in cash.

Harriet Baldwin MP went to a cashless leisure centre that insisted that customers used a coin for the locker.

Cash won’t vanish.

11/ This issue isn’t just in Exeter.

The Commons Treasury Committee in Westminster is currently discussing access to cash.

@age-uk.bsky.social told the committee it was crucial that people could still access essentials, like council run leisure services.

10/ Cllr Knott (Labour) argued that handling cash costs twice as much as card payments, and challenged me to suggest which services the council should cut to fund cash-handling costs.

But running a council is not the same as running a pub.

9/ Labour says only a small number of people are affected by this policy and claims leisure centres have found ways of helping them.

But what about the people who don’t even try to go for a swim because they know they can’t pay in cash?

8/Cllr Duncan Wood, Labour’s Portfolio Holder for Leisure, said the pandemic forced the council to go cashless, so no EQIA was necessary.

But why haven’t they done one now, years after the initial change?

7/ Councils are legally obliged to assess how their policies impact disadvantaged groups.

Last week, I attended the Strategic Scrutiny Committee, and asked Exeter’s Labour-led council why they hadn’t done an Equalities Impact Assessment on going cashless.

This is what they said:

6/ Consider victims of financial abuse.

These people rely on cash—often saved secretly—to escape their abuser, and to hide their trail.

Using cash can be a matter of life and death.

Cashless council leisure centres exclude these vulnerable people.

We must do better.

5/ The people who use cash most are often the most vulnerable.

Older adults, people with disabilities, undocumented migrants, those without bank accounts, and victims of financial abuse.

Excluding cash excludes them from accessing leisure facilities.