Martin's Blog

You meet someone, fall in love, and hearts pop out of the sky when you look at them. They're the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, but while some do it for the romance, is there any financial point in actually being married to them?

Put on your walking shoes, rub some balm into your calves, and massage your toes (not necessarily in that order) as it's time for my annual steps blog. While a total of 9,041,317 steps is a decent number, it's still slightly frustrating as it means I just missed my 25,000 daily steps target in 2024. I'd even made it in 2023, my Steppus Horribilis (as on 2 August 2023 I missed my 10,000 daily steps target for the first time in seven years due to food poisoning).

There was no news on energy standing charges in today's 1.2% rise January Price Cap announcement, but I do expect to hear the results of the Ofgem consultation before the year's out. Though sadly, I'm cautiously pessimistic. Here's a mix of a briefing and my thoughts...

Be careful who you listen to on Student finance. There’s a lot of nonsense spoken. And even when you’re getting facts, be wary, it has changed so often, the way it works for is different even for some still at Uni now, never mind those who graduated a decade ago. So I want to explain the practical impact on your pocket – which is radically different to the more political spin you will usually hear. 

Complaints about smart meters are through the roof. Too many people tell me theirs are broken. Others refuse to have them and feel companies are forcing them. I'm generally in favour of the concept of smart meters, though I think the way they've been rolled out since the start has been dire. Things need to change, so today I sent this open letter to the new Labour Government's Energy Secretary of State, Ed Miliband...

There's a lot of nonsense spoken about student finance. Not only because its fundamentally misunderstood by millions, but also as the system has changed so often, even if you talk to someone in their second or third year at uni now, the way it works for them is different to you, never mind those who graduated a decade or two ago.

We have a new Government, and new Chancellor, in Rachel Reeves. I’ve written to her today to highlight some areas of financial injustice we were working on with the previous government before the election (see my letter to Jeremy Hunt), in the hopes of getting things done. Here is the letter sent today (with some added links for further info)… 

I've set out to find the nation's best cheese 'n' onion crisps, with a mass taste test of 44 different packs, sampled by 26 tasters. This is my second data-Crunch – it all started last year, with the glorious best salt 'n' vinegar crisps tasting. Yet some people, strangely (or perhaps more accurately), started to say it couldn't end there, and that I needed do the same with cheese 'n' onion.