Data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) shows that 267 bank and building society branches were closed permanently between April and June, leaving the overall network 4.55 per cent smaller at 5,599.17 hours ago.
The above breaking news tells the story, the local Barclays in the photo above echoes the same. As British High streets are laid bare and those places that we mixed and met , did business and things go away. The tellers now tell a different story of days long gone, when cash was King, digitally dethroned by faceless apps. The slot machine ATMs now becoming bricked up holes in the wall.
As the bank robbers move their heist to cyber and the masks are adorned for other reasons we all know. The getaway car no longer parked on the yellow line outside the bank, the congestion and ULEZ emission charges killing all existence of any car. Even the traffic wardens are fewer and the redundant bank tellers can’t even plod the streets looking for gainful employment. How many coffee shops can we accommodate?
Sadly you will see a very limp Union Jack hanging outside the old bank, a Brexit legacy of Sovereign days when Empire reigned. Now as the Union breaks much of what we knew disappears. But who cares that is the question ? Having returned from a weekend away the Pre and post antigen tests with break in between exhaust and the form filling , password remembering is too much for the average brain. Add the check in, the Covid pass, the green pass and the paper backup, the fast track search and undress, the queue for coffee, the marathon walk to the gate, the lost baggage on the turntables and the gruff customs check as you appear both sides, the by chance biometric gate entry and the encounter with airport cleaners, the long March to the car park remembering where you Parked and the crossing figures that camera recognition allows you out, this long exhausting list of to dos spoils the flight and the joys of life. Then join the motorway mayhem , find home tired and tedious looking for a break from the break.
Life is not going back to what we knew. What can we bank on ? The fact is it’s here to stay and monitored tracked and traced we have become. Privacy that quiet weekend away, no longer, alas Government and Authorities put on notice of all that we do and all that we spend our money on. Profiled and passport to a new day where unless our brains are fully programmed we are unable to escape.
Lockdown followed by Shutdown, this new era surrounds us, captured by our phones, tracked by our habits. No wonder others seek new planets for this one has become too crowded, too busy and too complicated. Let not our minds be shutdown by apathy let not our hearts be dulled let us get away from the screens that dominate our lives and make us all prisoners to Zuckerberg , Cook and Gates. Alas I sense it is too late and we are on a new track that book of Revelation coming to pass where we can no longer buy nor sell without that beastly mark. The time has come that Revelation train standing on Runway One has come and we are all being herded aboard. Fear not for I know the end of the story and ultimately we win , in God we can bank on, only in God can we trust.
qbitblogger 