Mick Beeby

@ZackPolanski If you force wages up then everything in that wide sector goes up in price that the employee buys. Employee = £0.72, HMRC = £0.43. Employer cost = £1.18 extra. Now that £0.72/hr take home has to pay for £1.18/hr increase in overheads for goods and services. Only HMRC wins!

The Mail doesn't think seem to think workers, of all ages, are worth £15 an hour. That's fair pay for a fair day's work, with money workers will put back into the economy. We are the party for workers. Vote Green on 7th May.

@MartinSLewis @wildgoosejon A levy on energy firms is still a tax, no?

@wildgoosejon I don't know whether it'd be funded from increased taxation or debt or a levy on energy firms. Hence why I kept it at state funds

Today’s Poll: The Chancellor is today expected to discuss possible intervention if energy prices rise substantially in July or after. Do you support the use of State funds to subsidise bills - if so for who? Which of these is CLOSEST to your view...

@EdwardJDavey Do you even understand what 'supply' means in the energy industry? It is simply the retailer of energy to the consumer. They play no physical part in electricity or gas actually reaching homes or businesses, that is generator, transmission and distribution license holders.

Ed Miliband must step in and bar Tesla from holding an energy licence. Elon Musk is a threat to our national security and clearly not a fit person to operate in our energy industry. We can’t have the lights go out because he’s having a strop on X.

@__RedRabbit__ @MrPitbull07 If you're being charged $500 then the restaurant can pay its own staff. Only in America is there such an airport of entitlement that you could pay a premium price for a product and then also be expected to pay their employees separately.

Most servers in the US have to pay bussers, food runners, and bartenders a tipout based on their total sales. In Orlando where I'm from the average tip out is 8-10% of sales owed back to the restaurant to pay the other employees. If you tipped $40 on a $500 check, she likely had to pay out of her own pocket to take care of you. You probably stole $10 from her. 18-20% is the minimum for good service. Unfortunately, there's no way for people to learn US tip laws unless people explain it to them If a server explains you're stealing money from them or tries to explain the system to you they will be fired.

We went to a dinner as a group and had a $500 bill. We tipped $40. We were happy we can be able to give our server something, but her reaction was the opposite. She told us she assumed we're going to give her at least $120. When we asked for the manager, she said she was just joking, but she wasn't smiling at all. Idk, but is $40 tip enough for $500 bill? I just feel like expecting $120 is not realistic. ~Lea Robertson

@Keir_Starmer Please explain how the National Living Wafe can improve people's spending power please. For every £1 more in hourly wage, income tax and NI is taken, whilst the cost of everything you buy goes up by more, since employers for the thjngs you buy have pension, NI sick, holiday pay

Whatever is going on in the turmoil of politics, I know that for you and for millions of people, what matters is the cost of living. That's why we are taking urgent steps to tackle it head on. Freezing rail fares, rolling out free breakfast clubs and free school meals, boosting the National Living Wage and easing energy bills. Putting more money in people’s pockets. That’s my government’s focus.

@ElliotHODLs @MartinSLewis It's most definitely not a no brainer. My mortgage is at 3.74% but I am averaging 10.5% annualised on a stocks and shares ISA and I get an effective 60% tax relief on pension contributions (62% if I salary sacrifice), so the mortgage is the last place I'd put extra funds.

@MartinSLewis Its super important to show people the difference with the debt reduction in year 1's payments vs year 10 and its immediately clear overpaying is a no brainer if you can. A £250,000 mortgage on a 35 year term at 4% Interest (avg house price is £271k ish) - monthly payments of £1,106.00 Year 1. You will ONLY pay off £3,347 from the debt. Thats £13,272 in payments just to clear £3,347 off the loan. ONLY 25% of your payments off the capital. Year 10. You will pay off £4,987 from the debt. Thats £13,272 in payments to clear £4,987 off the loan. An increase to 37.5% of your payments off the capital. Year 20. The same comparison £13,272 in payments to clear £7,433 off the loan. An increase to 55% of your payments off the capital. THE QUICKER YOU REDUCE THE DEBT, THE MORE YOUR PAYMENTS ACTUALLY IMPACT THE REMAINING AMOUNT. Paying just £110 (10% extra a month) will reduce your term by 6 years 1 month and save £42,670 in interest payments. This is a GUARANTEED return on investment

To overpay or not to overpaying, that is the (mortgage) question. We'll discuss if you should use savings to clear your mortgage as one of the topics on my pod tomorrow. So if you've got questions or experience of whether its worked or not. Do let us know by reply.

@theamelia__ All 20.

@MartinSLewis Australia have a grant scheme towards PV and Battery storage at the moment that is fuelling increased installs. Interest free loans and grants would help build distributed resilience via participation in VPP schemes whilst allowing people to repay loans from the ongoing saving.

I'm being asked what I think of the Warm Home funding plans announced today to allow everyone to improve home energy efficiency. This is the statement I put out on it... “Improving housing stock through energy efficiency done right is a good long-term route to reduce energy bills. Yet it’s staggering how many times we’ve seen governments badly cock up ‘available to everyone’ schemes over the last decade or so - from the ‘Green Deal’ to the ‘Green Home Grant’. They were overly complex, poorly designed, and as user-friendly as a self-assembly wardrobe with no instructions. “Simple interest-free loans (or very low interest) are an easier concept. It means those who don’t have lump sums but can make savings from these measures can get on with it. And while people looking at fitting batteries, solar panels and other home efficiency measures today will be disappointed that nowt practical will likely happen until 2027, at least it means there’s time for them to consult and hopefully get it right. We’ll be looking to feed in to try and help them avoid past problems.”

@goblinner @jburrage @teslaownersSV @grok 10cm x 10xm is 0.01 Square meters not 0.1 Square meters. 0.1 Square meters is 31.6cm x 31.6cm

@jburrage @teslaownersSV @grok 0.1 square meter = 10x10cm or just under 4x4 inch bro lmao

Elon Musk "All 8 billion people on Earth can fit on one floor in the city of New York. Another way, if you're flying across the country and your goal is to drop a water balloon on someone, you will fail because it's empty."

@OctopusEnergy What other countries do you supply then? How many customers now in UK? I've been with Octopus probably most of those 10 years now and just got Mt latest converts currently switching and hopefully another of our tenants after that.

10 years, 10 million customers worldwide 🥹💘 On behalf of our team across the world, THANK YOU for trusting us to power your homes. We’ll keep working hard for you every day. Check the 🧵 for a few lovely moments we’ve shared with customers along the way 🐙

@OctopusEnergy Thank you for your reply. Another question. If on Agile and Free Electricity Session is issued and coincides with negative pricing, do you still get the negative pricing? Conversely if the pricing was positive I assume you'd get the 0p credited, I.e. credited for positive only.

@mick_beeby Hey Mick, you get Octopoints for any extra exporting during the Session. It’s what we call “net” consumption: octopus.energy/blog/saving-se… You continue getting paid for the electricity you send to the grid as usual with your export tariff 🐙

@OctopusEnergy If your normal Baseline is 0kWh because you have PV, do you get the 192 Octopoints per kWh if you export during this period when you wouldn't normally, in addition to normal export payment?

@MartinSLewis But if the pub was a service that everyone needed access to, without exception, then a fixed access charge would be a perfectly logical thing. I export more electricity than I use so why should I pay no standing charge as I still need the connection.

The logic that as energy has fixed costs that MUST all be paid by a Standing charge is flawed. Pubs have fixed costs. Yet you don't pay a monthly pub-access-subscription then a unit rate for each pint on top. A pint's cost incorporates the fixed cost, as many industries' do.

@_JackBarton @Marky146 @MartinSLewis @ofgem It's not just rhe cable to your house, it's the mains cable jn the footpath, the link boxes, substations that are regularly inspected and maintained so your supply stays connected. The upstream HV network substation, poles, towers, protection systems that have to be maintained.

@mick_beeby @Marky146 @MartinSLewis @ofgem I ask you this question when was your cable last upgraded to your house mine was some 60 years ago when the house was built lets say average 30p per day standing charge 30*365 is 109.50 a year x60 £6,750 would say that's been covered along with the export

Energy Standing Charges news... how disappointing! @Ofgem will today launch a final consultation that from January firms will be forced to offer a low Standing Charge tariff. Here’s my press quote on it. How disappointing! There was a chance to see a proper mandated low Standing Charge option to benefit many, and while I hope I’m wrong, it looks like Ofgem may be about to somewhat smother it with the pillow of bureaucracy. I get more complaints about Standing Charges than anything else in energy bills. It’s like a poll tax where people must pay £300+ a year just for the facility of having gas & electricity even if they don’t use it. This moral hazard disincentivises people from cutting their usage, and punishes especially older people who only use their gas during the winter. Having campaigned for years to get the Price Cap’s Standing Charges lowered, once it became obvious that had failed, I proposed a dual Price Cap. One as it is, and another option with no or a low Standing Charge, and proposed that vulnerable users should be defaulted to whichever was best for them (lower users are the ones who benefit from no Standing Charges). Ofgem was warm to this at first, and agreed to ask for wide input on the basis of this idea. Now, at the next stage of consultation, it seems to have substantially watered that down. While a low or no Standing Charge tariff option is an improvement, and will benefit some users, the core problem is it doesn’t look like it’ll be under the Price Cap mechanism. That leads to two big possible problems: 1) There is no limit to what firms can charge, so they could wipe the Standing Charge, but increase the unit rate far above what is needed to compensate for it. 2) Those most in need of this option - vulnerable low users - tend not to switch tariffs. While the Price Cap has unfortunately become a default price for many, the reason it was set up was as a backstop tariff for those who don’t or can’t engage in the market. Mandating a low Standing Charge switchers tariff outside the Cap won’t help them. Add to that the fact it is proposing a minimum usage level to try and cut out second home owners, which could wrongly capture many very low users and overall I worry Ofgem has picked an easy route to appease suppliers’ concerns, that doesn’t help the most vulnerable. I suspect if it goes ahead like this, not enough people will switch and they’ll say ‘it wasn’t worth it’. We will robustly be pushing back in response in the consultation.

@Marky146 @MartinSLewis @ofgem Why is it not. The standing charge pays for your connection to enable you to export. I export up to 90kWh on a good day and my bills are substantially negative at thia time or year but I don't begrudge there being a standing charge to pay for the connection itself.

How about me? I paid a lot of money to install Solar and storage batteries in my house. I’m off grid for 9 months of the year and put some 1500kw back into the grid during Summer months. I need to send 3KW to the grid each day to just cover the standing charge. Is that fair? I’m not allowed due to planning to put a wind turbine up either.

@ElonMuskNews47 It depends whether it can offer 1Gbs+ bi-directional speeds, similar to fibre.

@Keir_Starmer I'd rather you get potholes fixed on our abysmal roads! You take a fortune in tax from drivers in the form of fuel duty (and VAT on the fuel duty!), insurance tax, vehicle excise duty, so its about time you spent enough on the roads to keep them in suitable condition to drive on!

Everyone knows how annoying it is when you’re on a train and your signal keeps dropping out. So we’re going to install ultra-fast cables along major rail lines to get rid of those dead spots.

@Ed_Miliband And before making such a flippant claim, has an impact study been carried out on the effect on the elwctrixity network. The base load of a typical property is around 200-300W. Even with 3.5kW of panels, at peak sun that us potentially every house exporting over 3kW around midday.

We’re kickstarting a solar rooftop revolution. All new-build houses will come with solar panels as standard. Delivering lower bills, energy security, and tackling the climate crisis. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@KamillaKar76110 @TruthTrumpPosts @realDonaldTrump What big ocean in between? The distance between Russia and the USA is 2.4 miles at it's closest point.

( @realDonaldTrump - Truth Social Post ) ( Donald J. Trump - May 25, 2025, 8:46 PM ET ) I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia! Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop. This is a War that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not “Trump’s,” I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.