In article .com, MIG
writes



Makes you wonder why they would separately try to introduce ID cards
given that, once cash stops being accepted in most places, these smart
cards would effectively become a licence to exist that could be
withdrawn if the authorities don't like you.

'You had to take those pieces of paper with you when you went shopping,
though by the time I was nine or ten most people used plastic cards. It
seems so primitive ... before everything went on the Compubank.
I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at
once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been
portable money, it would have been more difficult.'
Margaret Atwood - 'The Handmaid's Tale'

Oh yes, and what 'they' did was to invalidate every woman's
Oyster-sorry-Compubank card at the same moment. All part of the grand
scheme to undo centuries of women's liberation. Very successfully, too.
--
Sue
The Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Preservation Trust is now at
http://www.sirnigelgresley.co.uk
Including - 00 gauge Hornby and Bachmann models for sale.