I usually have £50 drawn, but only take enough to cover transport/essentials in case there is an issue with cards/card-readers.
I like physical cash for teaching kids about money, but I am mostly cashless. I like having receipts/statements to remind me of what I’ve spent and where I’ve spent it.
Not sure what comparison you’re trying to make. Are you saying handling gold or cash is even remotely comparable?
Here in Portugal, after public debate years ago, we have written into law that everyone has to accept cash for payments under 3500€ and ATM withdrawals have to always be free. This ensures everyone always has access to their money and everyone can always shop wherever they want even if they don’t have any of the other payment methods the shop accepts.
For an analogy that in my view makes more sense than yours, do you want to go back to the time where if I have sugar and need rice I have to find someone who wants sugar and wants to trade it for rice? That’s pretty much what a future of MasterCard and Visa money is
The last time I commented on this thread, I mentioned that I always carried cash for parking and shops that don’t take card.
I’ve since changed jobs and now have a parking permit, so that’s no longer needed. I’ve also found that everywhere I tend to go to these days accepts cards.
The local exception is a café near our premises which will only accept cash. I haven’t been there yet and not being able to pay by card definitely plays a part in that. 🤷
So aside from a 50p coin sitting in my purse, I’ve been completely cashless for a few months now. 
I have my cards in Google Pay for backup. 
I probably would go cashless, but I don’t live in a city and find many shops and pubs still have minimum spends for cards, ranging from £5 in my work canteen to £10 in our local pubs. Also parking meters in the area are all coins only.
If minimum spend was banned then we would have less of a problem.
I thought it was against Mastercards T&Cs to do this?
May have dreamt it but sure I recall something along those lines being mentioned 
edit: it is!
I do live in a city
One of my local pubs, the one that resolutely refuses to stock Coke and Pepsi as its cola, told me that apparently “too many people are using card and we need the cash” so they upped their limit from an already annoying and locally unique £5 to £10. Sakes
Otherwise I am basically cash free and not missing it
Well I did not know that!!
Need to send the mastercard police round 
Sternly worded letter klaxon!
This is actually allowed, but it must be disclosed beforehand. You can report it here:
https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/report-problem-shopping.html
Have you got a link to where it says this please? My quote is from their T&Cs.
Also you’ve linked to US Mastercard not UK 
Last time I read through their terms about this it definitely said minimum isn’t allowed.
How long ago was the debate out of interest, and do you think public perception would have changed significantly since then?
It was around 2013 when the new EU banking regulations required major revisions in some laws. Basically most things remained unchanged. Since the 1980s that the law specifically requires all businesses to accept cash and ATM withdrawals have always been free, it was just not embedded into law like it now is.
Once in a while some banker talks about banks wanting to charge for ATM operations, there’s some public discussion, everyone talks about the banks being greedy and someone in government quickly quells any fears of that happening.
As for having to accept cash, people like to have the option to pay with cash even if they mostly use card based payments and businesses prefer cash
I don’t mind cashless where everything is cashless. I struggle being in the in between world! The times I’ve gone to the car park and needed cash… argh!
I’ll try and have a few £ coins floating around yet somehow they vanish to god knows where.
The thing is- I love the idea of seeing money. Holding it. We’ll just be looking at numbers soon- no cash. Just a number.
Currently looking at some data that reminded me of this thread.
I manage a retail store so have a reasonable insight into how people are paying for their goods.
So far in August, 80% of customers have paid cash.
In July, 82% and in June, 75%.
This is in a busy town, about an hour and a half from central London and actually surprised me quite a bit. 
Are the purchases lower cost in value (in general)?
I find a lot of the “older generation” (say… 50 and over) tend to pay for smaller items in cash, and save the larger purchases for card…
I think the type of store is going to make all the difference though - the datapoint is pretty meaningless otherwise.
A charity shop is going to have more cash transactions than a high end home theatre store for example.
What I found was people either used all cash or all card regardless of purchase size , older people once converted by family to card always used it.
This was in a retail food shop.
Cash is still king to lots of people me included.
I had my card cloned a month or so ago and a fair amount was spent on it(the bank refunded it after investigation). It has however made me less likely to use my card or even take it with me, after all no one has ever cloned my cash. Yeah someone could take my walletwhich I’ve never had happen to me, but if they try it I’ve got a fighting chance of getting it of them or stopping them.