The Economist April 16th 2022 Britain 49An expertrunsoutofroad
T
he weeklyemail from Money Saving Expert is a superb guide
to Britain’s collective mood. Usually, the missive from the con
sumerfinance website brings an incoherent mix of bargains into
the inbox of its 7.5m subscribers. “£12 broadband, free wills...£4.50
dresses”, ran one perky subject line.
But in recent weeks the messages have become darker. “Heat
the human, not the home” was the headline above one section of
advice on how to avoid freezing as energy prices soar. Martin Lew
is, who has become one of Britain’s most recognisable figures
since starting the site in 2003, is now calling for government inter
vention to cope with annual energy bills that could soon hit
£3,000 ($3,900) per household. Without help, warns Mr Lewis,
civil unrest is likely.
As the costofliving crisis intensifies, the usually apolitical Mr
Lewis has a good claim to be the most influential man in British
politics. The readership of Money Saving Expert rivals the collec
tive reach of Britain’s newspapers. “The Martin Lewis Money
Show” on itvis watched by up to 4m people per week. Mr Lewis es
timates he is stopped on the street 30 or 40 times per day. Polls put
him among the country’s most popular figures. He is part national
treasure, part firm parent: think David Attenborough, but with
mortgage advice rather than gorillas.
Mr Lewis’s fame might seem odd to people outside Britain. But
then, British capitalism is odd. The country has gone further than
others in opening services to the market. Elsewhere, state suppli
ers dominate the energy market. By contrast, Britons could until
recently choose between dozens of firms. Switching mortgage
providers every year or two would strike people in France or Belgi
um on 20year fixed deals as insane. In Britain it is normal; those
too lazy to do it end up paying higher prices.
It is a hassle, though. As the saying goes, the trouble with so
cialism was that it took too many evenings. The trouble with neo
liberalism is that it involves too many evenings comparing prices.
Mr Lewis emerged as a fair guide through the maze. It is a valuable
service: he sold the business to Money Supermarket, a pricecom
parison website, for £87m in 2012 although he is still involved.
Arms folded, his picture glares from the top of the homepage.
Money Saving Expert has played a subtle but significant role in
British politics. While austerity immiserated poorer Britons after
the financial crisis, those in the middle were able to dodge the
worst with a bit of financial wiliness. Mr Lewis’s company helped
Britons claim back £38bn in missold payment protection insur
ance, keeping their bank balances positive. At the peak in 2012,
compensation payments amounted to 0.3% of gdp. For years, La
bour called on voters to be angrier than they were. But for most of
them, things were all right. Why smash the system when one can
work it instead?
That world is quickly vanishing. Many of the energy firms that
Mr Lewis encouraged people to jump between have gone bust, tak
en down by a sharp rise in wholesale gas prices. With inflation
forecast to hit double digits, changing broadband suppliers will
not touch the sides. Bluntly, there is little Mr Lewis can do to help,
as he admits. There are no more micro solutions to what is ulti
mately a macro problem.
Mr Lewis finds himself in an increasingly political position. He
built his fame via a technocratic approach to the British econ
omy—a kind of policy without politics. (Despite his popularity, Mr
Lewis has ruled out an entry into politics proper, but he is keen on
becoming a crossbench peer in the House of Lords.) It is easy to tell
people which car insurance is cheapest. It is harder to say exactly
how much the government should spend on ensuring people can
heat their homes. But, now, Mr Lewis is clear: more.
Usually, celebrity interventions in politics can be dismissed as
the wailing of wellpaid luvvies. But they work well when the ce
lebrity in question has experience of what they are talking about,
says Luke Tryl from More In Common, a thinktank. Marcus Rash
ford, a Manchester United footballer, had success campaigning for
wider access to free school meals because he grew up in poverty.
Having spent two decades berating people for failing to pay off
their creditcard balances, Mr Lewis has earned his chops.
His chivvying puts the Conservative government in an awk
ward spot. It has cut fuel duty and tried to help in other ways, but
its measures are poorly targeted. A cap on household energy bills
delayed rather than avoided pain for consumers. It acts more like a
price beret—a little hat to put on top of a huge price rise, rather
than an upper limit. Consumers face an extra £38bn in energy
bills. Covering a significant chunk of that cost, as Mr Lewis sug
gests, would be an intervention to rival the furlough scheme dur
ing the pandemic. Penny wise, pound foolish
How the government responds to Mr Lewis’s call will determine
its fate at the next election. Living costs are the main problem fac
ing Britain’s politicians, although they do not always recognise it.
Westminster suffers from collective attentiondeficit disorder:
there is always a nondom wife or a sexpest mpto snatch atten
tion from longterm but more important crises. But Britons are
anxious, and the full horror of rising prices is yet to be felt. Most of
the old homeowners who so reliably vote Conservative are yet to
receive a giant heating bill.
Mr Lewis personified a particular era of British capitalism. It
featured a fight between consumers and capital, with the state
playing little role. Homo economicushad to fend for himself, with
Mr Lewis whispering tactics in his ear. Now things look so grim,
only the government is big enough to help. Mr Lewis has changed
his tune accordingly.Ratherthan chide the British public as usual,
He is shouting at the British government. The Conservatives
would do well to listen.nBagehot
Martin Lewis has become one of the most powerful people in politics