Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on the rise of cash use in shops, how Prince Harry is doing what Diana would have wanted and French President's national address

French President Emmanuel Macron makes a national tv address after Prime Minister Michel Barnier was ousted in a no-confidence vote. The presidency says Barnier will remain in office on a caretaker basis with his ministers until a new government was appointed. But will anyone want the job seemed doomed to failure over cost-cutting tax-rising aims?

Cash use in UK shops rose for a second year in a row after a decade of falls. According to retailers notes and coins were used in a fifth of transactions last year, as shoppers found cash helped them to budget better. The amount spent per purchase dropped slightly.

Prince Harry said his life in the US is what his mother Princess Diana would have "wanted" for him. He added his family were able to access a degree of privacy and freedom they "undoubtedly wouldn't be able to do in the UK" due to concerns around security.

UK Correspondent Gavin Grey joins the show.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kevin Gray are UK correspondence here, Hey Kevin either have
now do you reckon Macron's going to survive this?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, it's going to be an interesting few days for him.
I mean, the French can't hold another election until July.
That's because there has to be a minimum of a
one year change, a one year delay between the elections.
And I have to say, when he called it, he
thought he was going to strengthen his hand this snap election.
Instead voters went the other way. There are now three
equal blocks or pretty much equal in Parliament, meaning he

(00:31):
can't really get anything done because they won't agree with
one another. The Prime minister resigned this week, the shortest
term for any prime minister in the Fifth Republic, and
then last night Emmanuel Macron on television saying that people
were playing politics. He was going to put in a
new prime minister in the next few days. But it's
looking very bad for France. The stock markets, the investors

(00:53):
don't like it, the financiers don't like it, and looking
bad for Emmanual Macron. Can he really weather the storm
to see it through to the end of his turn?

Speaker 1 (01:01):
If he doesn't wither it, what does it look like
for him if it goes really badly for here.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, I mean, well, I think chaos really is the
thing because the country has twice the deficit permitted by
the European Union. Double the deficit. Now, when the UK
went over that deficit limit, I think I'm right in
saying we were fined very heavily, and yet somehow France
double the deficit. It needs to tackle it. It needs

(01:28):
to raise taxes, it needs to cut spending, neither of
which would be popular, but things that other countries have
had to do or been forced on them by the
European Union. I'm not saying that'll happen here, but something
needs to change, and change fast, because France's economy is
heading in the wrong direction. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Very interesting. Hey, so why is the keche us going
up in the UK?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah? I think it's predominantly a thing that many people
are struggling with the new technology. And we've had the
loss of a lot of banks here and that is
le I think to with thousands of bank closures. I
mean in small towns and villages, but in cities too,
and that's led to many olderly people or those without
very good technology or digital skills really being isolated in

(02:12):
that they feel they can't sort of move their money
around as they wanted to. And one good reason that
cash is being used is it helps people budget better.
And so here in the UK, for the second consecutive
year in a row, we've seen the number of cash
transactions in shops increase and that yes, the previous decades

(02:32):
showed a steep fall, but cash is now used in
about one in five transactions in a shop. The amount
has slightly gone down. It kind of wrestles around that
fifty New Zealand dollar mark is the average spend per transaction,
but certainly it does seem to be gaining a bit
of traction. There are, however, many places now that are

(02:54):
non cash so card only, and that's something that many
people say, you know, completely alls out some customers going
in them.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Do you think it actually helps you budget better?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, you know, it doesn't make much difference for me,
but I do like spending in cash and I do
actually find as well and sometimes you get a better deal.
So obviously depends what you're buying and depends where you are.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
A Dealgevin, are you guys there's still under the table
jobby there.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Who said that no no, no, I just think that,
you know, some of the stores look at you absolutely ghast.
I was in one the other day. I got out
of twenty pound note roughly forty five New Zealand dollars.
The person looked at me like I was from Mars,
and I said, you have to accept this. This is
legal tender.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah. It's a very good point, Gavin, look after yourself.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Devin gray
owre Uk correspondence.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
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