Birdie song

banking by telephone or online, buy small items with a contactless card and don’t chance being mugged for a wad of cash as you leave the bank door? If you are desperate for cash, any grocer will give cashback.

Nicolas Sturgeon The phone is the number one tool for con artists to rip off old people.

Colin Burgess Maybe if we still used banks and high street shops there wouldn’t be such closures. Times have changed.

Ken Currie Physical branch usage fallen by 44% and 70% of customers using internet banking. Physical bank branches are increasingly an anachronism. If you don’t handle cheques, exactly WHY do you need to go into a bank? The argument that old people can’t manage is nonsense. Go into any supermarket and you’ll see plenty of elderly people happily engaging in cashless transactions. Complaining about this is akin to moaning about the decline of the buggy whip industry a century ago.

Euan Gray If physical bank branches are an anachronism, how come the CEO of Nationwide says that 40 per cent of new current accounts opened last year were opened by people physically walking into branches to do so? The document is pure gloss. We were told Scotland doesn’t run a deficit, now we will. We were told Scotland is not liable for a share of UK national debt, now we will pay £5billion a year for an unspecified time. You may want to live a life of poverty but I don’t.

Kia Tak Does anybody know if SNP austerity differs from other forms, does it have some badge of approval?

Itzi Bitzi It’s a “progressive and more caring” austerity.

Pete’s Dragon We need to thank Mr Wilson for telling it as it is. We then need to decide if we want to take the gamble of a possibly better future for our grandchildren and accepting that our standard of living will probably drop.

Abitgrumpy