DREW HENDRY: Cost-of-living crisis in Inverness and the rest of the UK is moving to a catastrophe as the Tory party chooses a new Prime Minister with the leadership race down to two candidates – Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak
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The UK parliament is now in recess for the summer. This parliamentary session ended with the Tory party and the UK government in crisis mode – just another day at Westminster.
This time, their internal wranglings will see a new Tory Prime Minister installed in Downing Street. A depressing thought in itself but even more dismal when you consider the candidates.
The final two, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, have been battling it out across media outlets. Each offers their own version of hell for hard-pushed families and vulnerable people in our community.
While Truss has been trying to woo Tory voters with the promise of sending even more vulnerable refugees to Rwanda, New Zealand media outlets
have been reporting on her not so valiant trade deal efforts.
Much like the rest of us, New Zealand media outlets are baffled as to why UK ministers would celebrate a deal that will sell out Scottish farmers and food producers.
They cannot fathom why the UK is giving New Zealand farmers a competitive edge over Scottish farmers.
The New Zealand trade deal, like the Australia deal before it, was primarily negotiated by Truss when she was trade minister. The agreement will see UK producers facing significant losses – including many jobs.
This is the UK government’s own internal analysis of the trade deal, analysis UK ministers have chosen to ignore.
The farming community and food producers are being hung out to dry by Truss and her trade predecessor. All because they need a deal – any deal, at any cost – to keep their Global Britain tall tale alive.
Meanwhile, Sunak has been enticing Tory voters with the promise of more austerity policies. This policy threat at a time when families are living through a Brexit-fuelled cost-of-living crisis is nothing short of terrifying.
We are only a few months away from the next energy price hike.
The UK government doesn’t seem to have given any serious thought to the delivery of the £400 grant or how that delivery will impact vulnerable people.
Whether it’s Sunak or Truss that wins the support of the Tory party, the clock is ticking.
The cost-of-living crisis is edging ever closer to a cost-of-living catastrophe, and the most frightening thing about these two PM hopefuls is that this impending catastrophe is not a priority for either – it doesn’t even come close.
