Payments choice campaigner Ron Delnevo wades into Piers Corbyn vs Aldi Greenwich, London cashless store debate

Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and also a climate change denier, anti-vaccine activist, and conspiracy theorist, recently courted controversy when he targeted Aldi UK’s first autonomous store, situated in Greenwich, London.

More on that here.

And now Ron Delnevo, Chair of the UK Payment Choice Alliance and a high profile proponent of cash usage, has had his say on the store.

Responding in a LinkedIn post to a Daily Mirror article about Corbyn’s antics, he said: A “cashless” Aldi SÜD? There are 4,000 Aldi stores in Germany, where the company is based - but they would not DARE attempt to foist “cashless” on the German public, who simply wouldn’t accept it.”

“And nor would the Deutsche Bundesbank, a central bank which genuinely supports cash, unlike the Bank of England. The Daily Mirror should concentrate on the harsh reality of “cashless” being imposed on ALL the British public, instead of focusing on the behaviour of one person.”

He added: “The UK leaves the EU - and then gets given Aldi’s first “European cashless store”? Forget Sweden. The UK is now the country on the frontline of the “War on Cash”. The British public are now simply guinea pigs, as far as the anti-cash collaborators are concerned.”

“Actually, perhaps a better analogy would be with Beagles, those lovely dogs “scientists” used to keep caged in laboratories, forcing them to smoke cigarettes, with horrible consequences for the defenceless animals.”

“For cigarettes, substitute “cashless” and for beagles, substitute the British public, with millions of seemingly defenceless humans being threatened with testing to breaking point, as “cashless” is forced down their throats.”

Delnevo went on to note that the first mainland European “cashless” Aldi, operated by Aldi Nord (there were two Albrecht brothers, who split the business north and south) opened in Holland in 2022.

“Holland, of course, is another country where the banks and card schemes have been able to freely wage their war on cash, with De Nederlandsche Bank - the Dutch Central Bank - realising too late what was going on. ATM numbers have dropped nearly 90% in the last few years, as the Dutch banks try to force “cashless” on the public.”

Delnevo plans to write to the bosses of Aldi SÜD and Nord next week - copied to the Deutsche Bundesbank and European Central Bank - asking that they cease operating cashless stores.

He concluded: “I believe it will be quite easy to put a stop to the cashless Aldi in Holland. Christine Lagarde , President of the European Central Bank is no supporter of cashless.”

“Here in the UK, we might have to wait until we get our Payment Choice Act, just before or just after the next general election.”