The return of the stamp

Original non-fiction-style practice text.

The community swimming pool has restored a rubber stamp for admission. After months of a scanner which frequently refused to recognise my card, I find the little blue mark on my ticket unexpectedly reassuring. It makes no claim to be an innovation. It says that a person has looked, agreed and let me through.

I am sure there are good reasons for electronic records. Staff should not have to reconstruct every busy morning from a pile of paper. But the scanner's failure had acquired an absurd authority: its refusal mattered more than the booking confirmation in my hand. We waited for a machine to believe something which everyone around it already knew.

The new arrangement keeps the electronic booking and allows staff to confirm admission with the stamp when necessary. This is not a grand defeat of technology. It is a sensible refusal to make a customer stand still while a tool wins an argument with the evidence it was supposed to help us use.

Assess the writer’s attitude towards the pool’s revised admission system. Use three details from the text to support your answer.