The official measure of inflation (CPI) is now 6.7%. In other words, it’s not gone down this month, but it’s also not going up. The official pundits add that wage growth is higher, at 7.8%-7.9% implying that while the working class might be better off, wage rises are a factor in causing inflation.

    It’s the same old lie. In fact the RPI index, a better indicator of workers’ rising costs, is 8.9%. Rents are increasing, even if food prices may be down slightly, and only for now... Because, with the Middle East conflict, the price of petrol and diesel will go up even more, pushing up all other costs.

    The “experts” at the Institute for Fiscal Studies admit that “household disposable income” will fall over the next 2 years. Meanwhile, the bosses continue to cut jobs. With the announcement at Rolls Royce, plus the 2 Swedish companies Volta and SKF - and KPMG in the City - the total job losses this week alone are 4,000. Financial experts say a recession is on the horizon. The working class knows that it’s already begun.

    Never mind, though. Sunak claimed at Tory Party conference that Britain's economy is growing - and he added, that this was not "despite Brexit, but because of Brexit." He used official figures to show that since 2019, it grew by 1.8%, compared to 1.7% for France and 0.2% for Germany. Except that in July, GDP (the measure of the economic output) actually shrank by 0.5% and then grew by only 0.2% in August. And GDP is forecast to shrink more in 2024.

    As for Brexit, it contributes to this shrinkage. It’s already meant food and medicine shortages, staff shortages in the NHS and elsewhere and delays at the border due to the restriction of free movement of people and goods (precisely the rules that Labour’s Starmer says he won’t change!).

    So when the so far, unimplemented barrage of new regulations are applied, like tariffs on electric cars at the end of 2023, the end of the City’s derivatives clearing in June 2025, checks on animal and food products this side of the border, etc., etc... the government will struggle even more with its bigoted fantasy economics of “growth”.

    And while it’s true to say that none of the world’s capitalists and their politicians can prevent the next crisis, which is likely to be of epic proportions, the British Brexit contingent has gone that extra mile to guarantee it.