As most of us will know, those days are gone, probably for ever. If I have a cheque book it’s hidden away in a drawer somewhere and I rarely think of it. The same would be true of my paying-in book. A cheque is a rarity for most of us. We bank on the telephone or on the Internet. Most people have an “app” on their phone which doubles as direct access to their account and a credit card. They rarely visit a branch which is just as well because, of course, there are very few branches left. Once there were branches of all the banks in every shopping street. When I moved to Bristol forty years ago there were three branches of one of them in my local suburb, two of them within a hundred yards in the same street. I suppose one had been a National Provincial Bank and the other a Westminster Bank twenty years earlier and after the merger they just stayed where they were. Lloyds had two branches – one had been a TSB until they merged – and Barcleys and Midland had one each. Then the two big Building Societies, Halifax and Abbey National were there as well. All gone now.

The Post Office provides services for cash and cheque payments in its branches, though most of those have closed now too, so it was to the Post Office I took my cheque, along with my debit card. I thought I would present the cheque, put the card into the reader and enter my PIN and all would be done. I was wrong. The cashier asked for my sort code and account number and these were not on the card. Without that information I couldn’t pay anything in. I shall have to dig out my cheque or paying-in book after all.

I’m not alone in this problem. We’re in the process of installing new heaters in the church, and we only have a dual-signature manual account with our bank, so we had to pay the contractor with a cheque. Two weeks later the contractor asked whether we could pay by a different method as they cannot get to a branch to pay it in. We can’t, but we’re finally realising we can’t carry on as we are. Our payment method just doesn’t work for most people any more. Cheques are just too inconvenient for people to use. Another issue is that people expect us to be able to access our account immediately, and this applies particularly to grant-making trusts who want confirmation funds they send us have been received so they can cancel the transfer if not. We wouldn't know until our next monthly statement pops through out treasurer’s letterbox. That just doesn’t work. I can ring the bank’s national office in Leicester and ask them, provided I can answer their security questions so they’ll talk to me. The problem is, if I don't know the answer to the question their computer spits out, which could be what I’m ringing to ask them about, they refuse to speak to me further for 24 hours.

We need to set up dual-authorisation Internet banking but that can only be done on the phone and involves passing their security questions again. Without Internet access I can't see the information I need to pass that, so we could be stuck again.

Why is this happening? It occurs to me we no longer as a country expect to do business. Instead, everything is tailored to the consumer market. It is assumed people will buy things but not that they will sell them. Bank accounts are designed for single-authority personal accounts where the same person has an overview of all activity. Businesses are a secondary consideration. Laws are skewed in favour of consumers on the basis large companies will exploit their customers if those customers are not protected, and it is customers who are individuals and therefore have a vote, so governments will favour them. Big businesses can pay lobbyists to persuade politicians to remember their interests, but smaller businesses cannot, so they can’t get their voice heard so easily. No one with any sense would start up a new venture in this country because all the regulations make it too much effort to try – employment, health and safety, safeguarding, registration and licences – for a small start-up these are just daunting. It’s far easier to take the big idea to an exisitng big company and hope they'll pay for it rather than just copying it and pretending it was theirs.

Alternatively, one could ignore the law and hope for the best. Enforcement is not always that strict; just witness the ubiquity of illegal motor vehicles on our roads at present. Why do the rest of us bother with number plates and insurance and tax and licences when a large proportion of drivers now ride around on illegal electric motorbikes at speeds of up to 40mph in built-up areas ignoring road signs, traffic lights, the distinction between roads and pavements and everything else intended to keep us safe? They can’t even be caught by facial recognition, which the government now wants to roll out across every outdoor space, because they usually wear balaclavas. It’s the honest people who suffer.

Politicians and policy-makers wonder why the economy is failing to grow as they would like. There is a simple answer. They are mistaken in believing they are in control. The country is falling apart, but the government in Westminster doesn’t seem to have noticed yet. Until they do, we cannot expect things to get better, and we are in danger as a nation from those who have.

We need a big reset. I’m sorry to have to point it out, but we’ve got to stop pretending and recognise the reality of our situation. We need an army and a working justice system and currently we have neither. Without the former a government cannot guarantee to stay in control of its territory. Without the latter it isn’t governing anything. Everything else, such as a welfare state are very nice to have, but without the first two they cannot be secure. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as consumers and realise we need most of all to deter war and enforce justice. Then we need an economy which actually works to support everything. Anything else we’d like to do or have depends on those pre-requisites. The people are beginning to notice. When will our ruling class wake up? When will we finally be able to pull together?