The beauty of the situation is:
I can go to one of the hardware stores and buy uncut blanks no problem, but I was going for my lunch and passing the locksmith's anyway, so I popped in with just the plug in my hand.
I guess it's their policy that to buy a blank, it must be cut by them. She didn't even look at the plug to ID it. It's an old British lock and since we are closer to the US, I can see why nobody has a blank.....why ship from 3000 miles away when you can ship from 800 miles.
Not to worry, if anyone ever asks me to recommend a locksmith, I'll refer them to the competition.
I'm not into the habit of revenge/harassment, it's counter-productive and I may need to buy something from them at some stage if they are the only place that sell it.
I'll just keep them as a last resort.