Jimmy Rice

“For all we know, we could be in the middle of Keir Starmer’s finest hour”. Starmer’s critics say he is imperiling the UK’s special relationship with the US... But is it Donald Trump who's doing the damage? @jonsopel | @lewis_goodall

Delighted to read this press release from @OctopusEnergy that it will be passing on the full Budget energy cuts to all customers including those on fixes, by an (all other things remaining equal) price reduction for all on 1 April. This is exactly what I've been calling for, lobbying govt for (and Octopus boss Greg and I have chatted about) and I this first move by Octopus leads all other firms to come out and follow suit. If not there will be a huge lack of transparency (eg firms could launch a fix in jan and say we've factored in the April cuts, but there's no way to tell). Here's its release. ------------------ Octopus Energy to pass Autumn Budget savings straight to customers – automatically -All variable and fixed tariffs will be reduced from 1st April to reflect policy changes - Customers don’t have to do anything – changes will automatically be applied - Octopus urges other suppliers to follow suit to help ease rising energy costs London, 12th December 2025 – Octopus Energy today confirmed it will pass on the changes from the Autumn Budget 2025 to customers, cutting energy bills from 1st April 2026. Octopus is the first major energy supplier to guarantee these reductions will be applied automatically across all existing and new fixed and variable tariffs – customers don’t need to lift a finger. The Autumn Budget policy cuts will remove certain costs from energy bills from April 1st, reducing a typical yearly bill by around £134, relative to what they would otherwise be. Octopus is calling on other energy suppliers to do the same and ensure that customers benefit transparently. The move is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to making energy simpler, fairer, and more affordable. Greg Jackson, CEO and Founder of Octopus Energy, said: “Octopus has long called for cuts in policy costs to help bring bills down, so we are delighted to see the government taking action. “These changes will bring a welcome relief to customers, and we’ll pass them through on all of our tariffs as soon as they kick in, so no one misses out. “Octopus customers can rest easy – we’ll do it all automatically. We hope other suppliers will follow our lead so everyone can benefit.”

NEW: 93 murders in London (pop: ~9m) in 12 months to October. The city's murder rate is now lowest for decades; perhaps centuries. comment.press/7892