It’s going to change our lives.However, if the owner loses the card, the money is lost with it, like cash.”The Mondex office received 5,000 applications to be in this trial before it had even begun the publicity for it. When the cardholder wants to pay, the card is put in a reader which transfers the sum to the retailer The same system can be used over the telephone. “It means small sums of cash can be transacted securely, instantaneously and economically.”The cash is held as numbers on the card’s microchip, and a card can hold an unlimited amount. The holders can load their cards with money from their bank accounts using card-readers attached to the telephone. They can spend it at 700 outlets, including pubs, supermarkets, chemists and petrol stations.By the end of the trial, up to 40,000 people could be using the cards, supplied by Mondex, a joint venture between the National Westminster and Midland banks and British Telecom.”Electronic cash is going to cause a revolution,” said David Birch, a director of the management consultancy Hyperion, who has worked with Mondex since the idea was mooted five years ago.

But this morning a copy of the paper will be bought using “electronic cash” held on a credit-sized card, starting a 12-month experiment that could launch the cashless society.From today, 500 Swindon citizens will carry “smart cards”, which will store cash in the form of electronic digits on a microchip. CHARLES ARTHUR

Technology Correspondent
Swindon might seem an unlikely place for a revolution to begin and the local newspaper, the Evening Advertiser, an unlikely weapon to deal the first blow. Historical Royal Palaces did two-and-a-half years’ research to reproduce the garden by studying original bills and lists of flowers and shrubs planted there.The show, now in its sixth year, runs from Wednesday to Sunday It is open from 10am to 7.30pm (5.30 on Saturday).. “Whether I’ll be one of his friends or not when he finds out, we’ll have to wait and see.”On Thursday, the Prince of Wales will open the restored Privy Garden of William III, which replicates a garden completed in 1702. GLENDA COOPER

A garden dedicated to the head of the prison service is one of the star exhibits at this week’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, the world’s largest annual gardening event.
“Del’s Meat and Veg”, produced by the inmates of Leyhill Prison, Gloucestershire, is one of 25 show gardens on display in the palace grounds, south-west of London.The Del in question is Derek Lewis, the head of the prison service: “He’s our boss, you see, and he’s called Del to his friends,” said Jeff Goundrill, Leyhill’s estates manager. They have become the meat in the sandwich.”Children have been just as vociferous, raising fears for the future. Mr Cruickshank said: “I’ve seen children calling the police fucking Nazis This was a wonderful little town, but it’s all messed up I would move away tomorrow if I could I’ve spent 20 years of my life here I’ve people in the churchyard But I’d go.”.

“In all the letters and telephone messages I’ve received only one or two have been abusive,” she said.However, according to Mr Yardley, the effect of the ill-feeling could be a lasting breakdown in respect for the law “This is one of the most worrying aspects The police have become a focus of hatred. I would turn the large green shed into a brothel, there are enough local prostitutes to staff it,” a reference to the women protesters.Sue Wheeler, a former Bale organiser and one of those named, shrugs it off. A scurrilous anonymous news sheet, published by “Bill Bollox-Chops”, has appeared around town attacking the protesters.During the council elections in May a spoof manifesto appeared for “Bollicky Bill”, saying: “If erected (sic) … There has been a loss of tolerance, exaggerated here because it is a close community.”Some simply keep their views under wraps. “People are frightened,” said Mrs Cruickshank, also a teacher.