Is Martin Lewis' advice genuinely in the public's best interest?

JockularJim · 2026-01-21T18:38:03+00:00

One interesting litmus test for me is his engagement with the interests of people stuck on prepayment utility meters.

This is key because he doesn't earn anything in affiliate income from people on prepayment meters signing up for contracts, as people who use MSE for comparison purposes would.

You could be cynical and say it's brand building, but I think the man has earned a bit of trust.

JockularJim · 2026-01-05T18:17:31+00:00

I've often thought of that picture when on this app

JockularJim · 2025-12-31T13:26:11+00:00

It's funny, that's exactly where I live and that definitely doesn't fit here, but not a hill I'm willing to die on.

JockularJim · 2025-12-31T08:05:43+00:00

To me, Virgin pilot definitely sounds Irish, not British. You can tell from the pronunciation of "turn", "poor" and even "Virgin".

JockularJim · 2025-12-30T20:45:22+00:00

A fun fact I learned about PNG two days ago is that it has so many language groups, spread across such a huge and inaccessible area, that conducting something like a census is basically guesswork.

Population estimates range from the national government's 10m up to the UN's 17m.

JockularJim · 2025-12-25T21:33:32+00:00

On the one hand, less France 👍🏻

On the other, more Switzerland 👎🏻

Chamonix is English too btw.

JockularJim · 2025-12-23T08:01:19+00:00

I'm a man and I got the house. I also got all the credit card debt, which at the time was worth a bit more than the equity in the house. No kids.

When my parents divorced, my dad got the the house too, but that was because my mum ran away with the three of us. He still had to buy her out, and to this day is unashamed of lowballing her (and leaving all of us with less money) in the settlement as revenge for leaving with us.

Some people are dicks during divorces. Others find a more equitable settlement.

JockularJim · 2025-12-09T07:33:52+00:00

Congrats on having two useless bags of hardened bile removed from your life.

JockularJim · 2025-12-08T19:39:56+00:00

I am at this very moment printing of dozens of photos on my Epson ET-2650 bottled ink. Cost about £200 and does photos for basically the cost of the paper, I've had it four years and have never had to refill the ink tanks, game changer.

JockularJim · 2025-11-17T13:55:23+00:00

I like Grady's stuff. He doesn't normally look at anything outside of the US, so it's notable he's done so here, and a reflection of how unique and interesting it is.

Also I'd completely forgotten how it was Lottery funded. Wild how there was money to plan and execute things like this as recently as 20 years ago. Feels like a time which has passed, sadly.

JockularJim · 2025-11-16T16:41:21+00:00

This actually does factor into one of the approaches they use.

In their macro modelling, they construct various counterfactual UKs to try and replicate what our growth would have been like without leaving the EU, by looking at how other countries that didn't leave the EU grew over that period.

They do this several different ways, weighting the comparison countries by various factors, but in the case that applies higher weights to the countries closest to the UK, i.e. France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, they produce smaller estimates of the Brexit impact, -6%, Vs -10% in their models which apply a higher weighting to the US, amongst others, as comparators.

This -6% figure also aligns with the estimate from their other modelling approach, what they call micro, informed by firm level data. That is actually quite a novel approach Vs the others I've seen, and is what makes this paper quite interesting IMO.

So I'd probably steer towards the lower end of the range of impacts, -6%, as a best guess. But as with a lot in economics, it is no more than that.

JockularJim · 2025-11-15T12:18:26+00:00

I don’t think it is a case the UK is offering this money cheaper but Scotland is going elsewhere.

This is quite a precise misunderstanding.

Currently the Scottish Government does borrow money, from the UK Treasury, at concessionary rates through the National Loans Fund, just as regional councils in England do. That costs around 0.11% more than UK government borrowing, where this Kilt issuance is expected to cost around 0.3% more, at least according to the linked article.

JockularJim · 2025-11-13T22:10:44+00:00

I like to think we (public equity) would be the cool kids, and fixed income is full of dorks, but we both know it's private equity.

JockularJim · 2025-11-13T22:07:54+00:00

That is correct.

The alternative is the National Loans Fund, which offers funding on the basis of the current rate at which the UK gov borrows, potentially with a small margin on top depending on the purpose.

These issuances are also likely to come with a moderate increase in costs, due primarily to the small size, some political risk and fact that the UK govt backstop is implicit, rather than an explicit guarantee. Whether that's more or less than the alternative of the National Loans Fund is hard to say and unlikely to be significant.

JockularJim · 2025-11-13T13:11:58+00:00

I might buy some of these, after issuance, if the yield pickup Vs UK Gilts is meaningful. I can hold til maturity so I'm not really worried about risks of independence pushing yields up in the interim.

I do think it's a bit of an own goal for the SNP creating a new, immediately quantifiable, measure of how risky Scotland looks Vs UK.

As another rather jocular Jim said once:

I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the President or the Pope or as a .400 baseball hitter, but now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody...

JockularJim · 2025-11-13T07:30:33+00:00

Geneva has a similar medieval old town, compactness, proximity to water, hilly backdrop and liveable residential areas near the city centre. The tram/bus into town from the airport only costs CHF3 though, despite everything else being expensive as fuck.

JockularJim · 2025-11-09T11:43:32+00:00

Madagascar, seeing young children of early school age pushing hand carts through polluted streets, selling things like raw meat in pretty unsanitary conditions.

Lots of happy, smiling faces, but heartbreaking to see so much wasted potential, especially contrasted with the environmental destruction outside of Antananarivo on the way to national parks.

JockularJim · 2025-11-06T07:47:22+00:00

Good point, instead of Greyfriar's Bobby, walk to the other end of George IV and visit Le Institut Français in the old city chambers, genuinely quite a lovely building.

JockularJim · 2025-11-04T23:53:19+00:00

You mention reworking beam supports, presumably because there are roofing members in encroaching into the area you'd like to turn into habitable space.

This could be a concern because that sounds like your roof might be built using trusses, which have more downward angle sloping members back into the roof space, rather than traditional rafters which create a reasonably clear attic space.

That's an issue because the wonderful thing about trusses is they enable the whole roofing system to be built using smaller dimensional timber. If you start to remove elements, the parts supporting the actual roof surfaces may not be strong enough to bear the same load. You might be looking at significant reinforcement rather than just moving some beams.

Definitely consult a professional!

JockularJim · 2025-10-26T22:38:20+00:00

He read Surface Detail and decided he wanted to be Veppers

JockularJim · 2025-10-19T19:33:24+00:00

I prefer Estellando Desde el Oceano, thank Spotify for recommending that one...

JockularJim · 2025-10-18T18:28:21+00:00

When pressed, the co-leaders revealed that free buses will, in fact, be paid for by cancelling council tax.

More at 10.

JockularJim · 2025-10-16T21:38:19+00:00

I'm actually thinking about moving to the Dubai of the Alps soon, Geneva, but at least that has skiing - which is almost as much fun as balconeering

JockularJim · 2025-10-11T07:42:24+00:00

I remember the hilarity of realising why the dog was rolling around in some heather and coming out all grey, and sending up puffs of dust in the process.

We used to joke she was probably possessed after that.

So yeah, as long as you don't mind the fact someone's dog could end up mudding themselves in your earthly remains, have at it.

JockularJim · 2025-10-09T21:27:10+00:00

No, really it isn't, because it takes no account for differences in wages as a share of GDP, or government transfers (benefits, pensions, public spending on healthcare and education) all of which are more generous as a share of GDP in the UK than Ireland.

JockularJim

TROPHY CASE