Boris Johnson and the truth have always been like strangers on a train, but anyone tuning into the Prime Minister’s media appearances at the Tory conference will have seen he is actually on a separate track from reality.
Inside the Conservative conference bubble in Manchester, everything is fine.
Outside, there are queues for petrol, the gaps in the shop shelves foreshadow a grim winter and the slaughter of livestock that cannot be transported to market has begun.
But from the Prime Minister down, the level of denial about the obvious effects of Brexit is staggering.
The labour shortages caused by Brexit – and supercharged by the pandemic – have hit the very heart of the economy but several times the Tory leader has said that they are simply a blip.
Johnson predicts that wages will rise as a result but the truth is that salaries will find it hard to outpace inflation this winter, while millions of public sector workers will see any increase in pay swallowed up by a steep rise in living costs.
Johnson knows all this but watch the Tories cynically turn a crisis into an opportunity to once again weaponise people’s fears of immigration and cheap labour undermining wages.
The Prime Minister will use his conference speech to trumpet how he now controls who comes and goes from the country, in contrast to opponents who would welcome European workers who, we know, are so desperately needed.
Johnson is not being straight with the British public.
Even as the pigs are being taken to slaughter, he has the gall to stand there with a straight face telling porkies.
Sickening greed
Philip Green, who sold BHS for £1 without plugging a £571million pension gap, always was the unacceptable face of capitalism.
In the wake of the sale, BHS collapsed with 11,000 job losses and shop closures.
Documents obtained by the BBC now show Green’s wife Tina bought multi-million pound London homes around the time the BHS retail empire failed.
While dedicated shopworkers were left out of work and out of pocket, the Greens were doing very well feathering their substantial nest.
Using an offshore company, Tina Green bought property including a £15million Mayfair apartment and £10.6million home near Buckingham Palace.
At a time when so many are struggling, hearing of obscenely wealthy individuals working the system to make even more money is enough to make you pig sick.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
