When cash was the commonest way of transacting our financial affairs, there was a remote chance that we could be robbed. But if we were, the thief would only get the contents of our wallet.
Today, he could clean out our bank account because of what our wallets contain.
The switch to digital has transformed much behaviour over the past decade – emails instead of letters, e-books instead of paperbacks, shopping online, contactless payments.
The financial consultancy Enryo calculates that a debit card is found in 89 per cent of British people’s wallets or purses, and credit cards in 51 per cent, while 60 per cent of citizens keep their driving licences there, too.
That’s bad enough, but four per cent have their PIN numbers written somewhere and one per cent carry passwords for financial services.
Financial expert Tricia Phillips warned, “Personal information such as your name, age, address, mobile phone number and bank account details give fraudsters the tools they need to unlock your money.
“If a criminal has all your relevant personal details, they can very easily use your plastic cards or online banking systems to make purchases or empty your bank account.”
Maybe those old folk who stick to cash have the right idea, after all.
“Gadzooks, Sirrah, Avaunt Thee!” as Sir John Falstaff might have said upon hearing the news from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Undergraduates at its Lampeter campus are studying William Shakespeare’s jolly, romantic comedy, Twelfth Night, in which the leading lady pretends to be a man, but then falls in love with a real man. Oh, the merry complications!
But not in Wales. The university authorities there have spotted something untoward and have given students permission “to leave class without explanation or justification” if they find the content upsetting, according to the Mail on Sunday.
One can only wonder what the university bosses would have done if the play was, let us say, Romeo and Juliet, which opens with two deaths and ends with two suicides.
Or King Lear, where the inter-family violence includes one character gouging out another’s eyes.
Or Macbeth, where the word “blood” is spoken 40 times and a child is murdered onstage.
Or Richard III, in which the power-hungry, crippled Richard Duke of Gloucester arranges for the killing of his elder brother and the smothering of two nephews, aged 12 and nine, to clear his way to the throne.
And last but not least, Titus Andronicus, which pitches the Roman general Titus into a cycle of revenge with Tamara, Queen of the Goths. The naughtiness here reaches almost risible proportions, including a live burial, the chopping off of heads, arms, hands and tongues, a rape, and a famed scene in which a mother eats her sons baked in a pie.
Titus Andronicus is not often done these days and somehow I cannot see the University of Wales Trinity Saint David defying the trend.
Here in the UK, July’s weather ranged from pleasantly sunny to the usual damp and soggy (it is 15C. as I write this).
But it is impossible to ignore heatwaves this month which broke records in China, the United States and Spain and sent thousands of tourists fleeing wildfires in Greece.
A scientific study by the World Weather Attribution Group was in no doubt as to the cause: Global warming from burning fossil fuels.
In the short term, countries must build heat-resistant homes, create “cool centres” for people to find shelter and plant more trees, experts said.
In the long term, we have to stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. If we don’t and the world warms by another 2C, which scientists say is very likely, heatwaves will occur every two to five years.
Just ask the drought victims in so many parts of Africa, suffering desperately though their countries’ contributions to global warming are minimal.
I have no idea why these analyses of our national behaviour take place – probably to do with sales potential or somesuch – but the results can be intriguing.
An outfit called Compare the Market discovered that British people make an average of 84 blunders per year.
The list included: Dropping your book in the bath; sending a text to the wrong person; forgetting you put a meal in the oven; washing clothes and either shrinking or discolouring them or both; getting on the wrong bus; greeting a stranger thinking you know them.
War of the Sexes, Chapter 2,000-plus…
I always read my wife’s horoscope to find out what sort of day I will be having.
I tried to remarry my ex-wife. But she figured that I was only after my money.
I am to be best man at my pal’s wedding. Is it appropriate to open my dinner speech with “Welcome back, everyone?”
My ex-wife was from the land down under. Australia? Hell!
