People seem very happy to write a cheque, spend some money in a charity shop or throw a few pounds into a bucket at the railway station.

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Sit down and write a cheque there and then?

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Culture Minister Alun Pugh has said the assembly government would not write a blank cheque to underwrite the festival.

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"We will not write a blank cheque or fail to ask the right questions about proposed solutions, " said the shadow chancellor.

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He said the government should not write a "blank cheque" on behalf of energy customers at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills.

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"When I first started making a lot of money, I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write cheque after cheque to this or that charity without really feeling like it was a part of me, " she told America's Newsweek magazine.

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Knowingly, he had denied me the opportunity to write back with ready excuses, to enclose a cheque bloated with guilty zeros.

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