Paul Smith

Husband to a lovely wife. Dad to 4 great kids. And 2 grandchildren. Life-time fan of #Watfordfc and of #travel. #Petrolhead who owns a #Tesla

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

Actually 30 mins. Oops. Typed too fast!

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@JEGD65 @primarily_prog A bit late … but we got there at 830 and it took over 40 minutes to get in.

When inside, there are no loos (except just as you get in) and nowhere to get drinks (no large bottles allowed either).

Not to take away from a great evening - just practical info.

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@JEGD65 @primarily_prog A bit late … but we got there at 830 and it took over 40 minutes to get in.

When inside, there are no loos (except just as you get in) and nowhere to get drinks (no large bottles allowed either).

Not to take away from a great evening - just practical info.

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@primarily_prog Oh no. Good planning. Our train arrives at Pompei at 17.19 ready for tonight. 🤞

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@mattstannard I’ll text you when I’m in the middle of town. Enjoy the game. But not too much.

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@AndyBTravels Oh yes. And Japan is next.

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@JSS779 @PauldaRita @British_Airways I don’t equate “low level ff” to mean spending north of £7500 in the previous year (7500 new tier points is needed to achieve Silver, which means “free seat selection” more than a week out).

#tiermaggendon
#votewithyourwallet

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@asiageoff Thanks to you and the band for an amazing night

Good luck with #asia2026

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

Time to leave this place and head over to the one where the sky is blue.

Any tips welcome. #solongelon

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@OliverWakeman @MarillionOnline I believe the plan was for all the band to write solo songs as b- sides but only Steve did it.

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@mattstannard Hey Matt. Sadly a “light” cold has hit me so am not going to make it. Shame as I was looking forward to #watfordfc first away win in nearly a year 😉

Definitely up for a meet up in February.

[Emma 💛💙🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MonkEmma]

I know outrage is the point and facts are less important, but for those who do care, here they are…

There’s a video circulating of a group of men near a school claiming they’re having English Lessons IN a PRIMARY school

What’s going on?

🧵
1/7

[Emma 💛💙🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MonkEmma]

🚨Christian children were told they'd "be Muslim by year 6"!🚨

😱Sounds outrageous?

You know the drill…

If it sounds outrageous and designed to trigger you into being angry with “other” people, then you need to do some 🪏

1/25
🧵

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

Had a great time seeing @GrumpyOldRick and band last night.

@TheWaterside1 more concerts please!

[Chris Littlewood @chrislittlewoo8]

Digital ID for every adult is not progress. It is the end of a free society dressed up as convenience.

I am a cyber security specialist. This is my take.

They are selling it as a fix for illegal migration. That is bollocks.

We spend hundreds of billions a year on cyber security and yet the volume of breaches is breaking records. The threat is growing faster than the spend.

Digital ID will not stop boats. It will not stop trafficking gangs. It will not fix a broken border.

Criminals will work around it.

Honest citizens will pay the price.

It builds giant data banks that track where you go, what you buy, what you read and who you speak to.

It links your identity to every checkpoint in daily life.

One breach and your life is exposed.

Look at Jaguar Land Rover and the airports in recent weeks. Now imagine that at national scale on an ID system tied to everything you need to live your daily life.

Here is the risk that ministers will not admit.

Ransomware seeded through a supplier or an insider:

It lies quiet for months.
It rolls through the backups.
On trigger day the register and the recovery sets are both encrypted.

Payments fail. Health and benefits stall. Borders slow. Citizens are frozen out until a ransom is paid or the state rebuilds from scratch.

Centralise identity and you centralise failure.

Do not fall for the pitch.
Function creep is certain.
It starts as login.

It becomes access to money, travel, speech and public services.

It turns rights into permissions controlled by the state and its contractors.

It creates a single point of failure for criminals, insiders and hostile states to target.

It will punish the elderly, the poor and anyone who is not always online.

It will centralise risk and outsource blame.

It will not stop fraud.

It will not stop illegal migration.

It will build the machinery for a social credit system by stealth.

If ministers cared about the border, they would enforce current laws, resource patrols and processing, close loopholes and remove those with no right to stay.

You do not need a national ID to do any of that.

We scrapped ID cards in 2010 for a reason.

Britain does not need a central register to prove age or status.

Yes to privacy first proofs. No to a database state.

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@MonkEmma @Daily_Express As the saying goes never let facts get in the way of a (good) story. @MonkEmma does another excellent plain speaking, plain facts explainer.

[HUMAN WA$TE @Dplanet]

🚨🇬🇧 13 Examples of Elon Musk's Far-Right Amplification - Debunked.

Elon Musk is amplifying far-right propaganda about the UK on an hourly basis.

From hoaxes to conspiracy theories to open incitement, Musk has turned his 225M-follower account into a pipeline for racist lies and anti-democratic rhetoric. Let's have a closer look... 🧵👇

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

NEWS (before it happens)! Tomorrow's Energy Price Cap announcement is sadly likely to be a 1% RISE on 1 Oct. If you're not on a fix, consider it asap.

Ofgem's Price Cap dictates the rate all homes, except in Northern Ireland, on standard tariffs pay. That’s the 2/3rd of domestic properties who aren't on fixes or special deals. It is a pants cap, most on it could save £100s by ditching it (more help below)

The average of four analyst firms predictions is that a rise of 1.4% will be announced tomorrow. So with wriggle room lets say it'll be up 0.5% to 2%ish.

WHY IS THE PRICE CAP PREDICTED TO RISE...

The Price Cap moves with average wholesale rates (those energy retailers pay) over a 3mth period. Hopefully the graphic I've had designed shows the problem.

It's also set with a time-lagged. The 1 Oct to 31 Dec Price Cap change is dictated by wholesale rates from 19 May to 18 Aug. That’s how come Oct’s cap can be announced so early.

As you can see, there was a spike mid assessment period (mainly over US tariffs and Ukraine fears) which pushed the average up, without that we’d probably be seeing a small fall.

THE CAP IS A PANTS CAP, MOST ON IT CAN SAVE NEARLY 15% BY FIXING

Now we know the Cap is now pretty certain to stay at about its current level, or a little higher, until the end of 2025, it's easy to compare to the cheapest fixed deals which are

- nearly 15% less (c£250/yr cheaper on a typical bill)
- and have guaranteed rates, so you know they won't rise for at least a year.

That means switch to a fix and your energy use immediately costs less, and will continue to do so until at the very least the 31 Dec.

Yet the extremely strong likelihood is you’ll continue to save substantially after that too. Analyst's current predictions are that the cap will drop slightly in Jan (down 2%ish) then a rise again in April (up 5% ish). Though this is far more crystal ball gazing than the October prediction.

As your cheapest fix depends on your location, usage, payment type (sadly no fixes are available for non-Smart Prepay tariffs) use our MSE whole-of-market ‘Cheap Energy Club’ to compare and find yours.

For getting a cheap fix right now not to be worth it we’d need to see pretty immediate and monumental falls in wholesale rates – which no one is predicting. In fact our analysis shows that at every point over the last 18mths you’d have been better off getting the getting the cheapest fix than being on the Cap.

PS there are innovative time-of-use and EV tariffs its worth looking at as well as fixings, they’re detailed in the energy club, but I wanted to keep this as simple as possible.

WHAT I'VE NOT TALKED ABOUT...

I've kept this on the practical things that are changing tomorrow, so people can understand it and see how to act in their own best interest.

Yet please don’t see me explaining the system as championing it. I’ve always been a sceptic of the way the Price Cap works (you can search for tracts from me on it).

And I've long been concerned how many people are now on what was supposed to be a back-stop tariff for non switchers but has in effect become a default tariff for many. Never mind moral hazard that is the current level of Standing Charges, and many other issues too.

I’m also aware that some will misread my ‘why the price cap is rising’ section is rising. Please note it isn't an explanation of why the Price Cap is at the level it is at, just what is causing the specific latest change.

Energy generation and input costs are not within my focus or expertise (which is on consumer bills). I will leave to others who know more, the arguments over why is the UK Price Cap linked primarily to European Gas prices, why is there such regional disparity, and the rights and wrongs of the way we generate, cost and assign input costs.

[Paul Smith @paulsmithme]

@HolidayExtras

Thanks for tracking me and then not allowing me to provide feedback on why I didn’t buy.

#CustomerExperience