UK Treasury minister David Gauke has said it is morally wrong to pay tradesmen such as plumbers and builders in cash in the hope of avoiding tax. He argued the practice came at a big cost to the Treasury and meant other people had to pay more tax. This made me think about all the times many of us pay and accept cash: for cleaners, baby sitters, window cleaners and lodgers, thinking little of it.

More than 2000 years ago, the poet Ovid penned these prophetic words:

How little you know about the age you live in if you think that honey is sweeter than cash in hand.