The numbers are out, and they are ugly. GDP contracted by 0.2% in the last quarter, the first dip in five years.
The Treasury will dress it up as a blip, a temporary setback. They will blame the Iran crisis, the oil shock, the supply chain chaos. But the rot runs deeper.
Sources in the City tell me the real story is a loss of confidence, a trickle of capital fleeing London for safer shores. The Bank of England is sweating. They know interest rates are a blunt instrument when the problem is geopolitical.
The Iran conflict has exposed the UK's reliance on foreign energy, foreign trade, foreign goodwill. Every empty shelf in every supermarket is a testament to that. And the suits in Westminster?
They are still talking about free trade deals and global Britain. The disconnect is staggering. One senior economist off the record put it bluntly: we are living on borrowed time.
The GDP figures are just the opening act. The cuts to come will hurt. And the white-collar criminals who triggered this with their sanctions and saber-rattling will face no consequences.
They never do.
