I’ve had another day working from home here at Bigland Towers, which has allowed me to have news channels and podcasts playing in the background as the the Tory Government descends even more into a farce as our hateful Home Secretary, Suella Braverman spreads her hate speech even further. Not content with attacking the homeless, she’s moved on to protesters angered by what’s going on in Palestine/Israel, labelling them as terrorist sympathisers – and at the same time impugning the police (and indirectly, the Ulster Unionists of Northern Ireland). All this seems to be in direct challenge to the Prime Ministers authority as Braverman positions herself as the flag-bearer of the right, who’ll lead them in their culture wars. Sunak looks too weak and to indecisive to sack her, so the war will continue over the weekend – and beyond. Police, fearing that the far-right will mass to ‘protect’ the Cenotaph from an imaginary threat on Remembrance Sunday will have thousands of officers on the streets over the weekend.

There’s just a couple of teeny-tiny problems with Braverman’s rhetoric. The protest march is scheduled for Saturday (Armistice day, not Remembrance Sunday) and it’s not planned to go anywhere near the Cenotaph, as this BBC map makes clear.

Yet again, the country’s caught up in more Tory-infighting, this time over who’ll be next leader of the party when Sunak leads the next election. We’ve been here before. Last time it was the infighting over Europe that led to Brexit, and the economic and reputational harm that did.

Which brings me back to the title of this blog. In all the Tory infighting, they’re forgotten what they’re meant to be here for. It’s the economy and the wellbeing and prosperity of the nation – only that’s been thrown under the bus (that same red one, the one that promised £350m extra for the NHS). Because if you look away from the infighting, you may just notice that the UK economy’s in the doldrums. Have you seen the stock exchange recently? Here’s how it looks today. Down 1.28% It’s been up and down like a bride’s nightie all year. This is the biggest fall in three months as news of the economy flatlining has broken. Having been hit by interest rate rises and inflation, we’ve narrowly avoided going into recession.

But what are the Government doing about it? Well, nothing positive. Sunak’s lied about things as usual. Just three days ago he claimed the economy was growing! Oh, he also lied about debt falling! The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) had to point out that (in fact) the opposite is true. Now, what was that Sunak said about bringing ““integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” back to Government?

Lies and culture wars are all we’re left with by this lot nowadays. This week the secretive fossil-fuel funded lobbyists at the Institute of Economic Affairs tried to claim that Brexit was marvelous and our sales to the EU had risen. The truth? They hadn’t adjusted their figures for inflation. When you did, the opposite was true and trade with the EU had fallen by 7.2%. Of course, the right-wing press only mentioned what the IEA claimed and ignored the chart in their report that showed the opposite! Funny, that…

It took the likes of Johnathon Portes, Professor of Economics, King’s College London to expose the IEA’s lie on Twitter (Sod off Elon, I’m not calling it X).

Lying at the heart of Government has become endemic. The Tories have made such a mess of the economy after 13 years it’s no wonder all they and the rest of the right-wing want to do is talk about ‘culture wars and the ‘woke’. And let’s not even mention what’s happening with the NHS.

Don’t be fooled. Don’t let them keep throwing dead cats on the table as a distraction. I hope there’s no trouble in London this weekend, but don’t let the Government weaponise it for their own ends. People have the right to protest, the right to have their voices heard. Even the Royal British Legion have come out in support of people’s right to protest – and who should know more about people fighting for freedom?

So, I come back to that phrase coined by James Carville in 1992 and used by Bill Clinton’s election team. It IS the economy that matters – and don’t let the Tories and their friends in the media distract you from that fact.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312