I've seen rather a few people spreading the idea that the Manchester Arena atrocity was a "false flag" attack orchestrated by the British state in order to influence the outcome of the General Election in favour of the Tory party.
In this article I'm going to explain why I think that conspiracy theorising about "false flags" is deeply unhelpful, and look at the real political causes and the potential ramifications of such a serious terrorist attack at one of the pivotal moments of the 2017 election campaign.
Background
The five days before Salman Abedi killed at least 32 innocent people by blowing himself up at the Manchester Arena were nothing short of a political meltdown for the ruling Tory party.
Their near-universally hated policy of asset stripping people who need social care in order to fund even more corporate tax breaks was going down like a shit pancake; their poll lead in England was evaporating, their poll lead in Wales completely reversed in a matter of days, their totally uncosted "magic money tree" manifesto was being ridiculed by all, Theresa May was clearly buckling badly under the pressure of some totally unexpected light criticism from regular Tory cheerleaders like Laura Kuenssberg and the Daily Mail.
A suspension of election campaigning couldn't possibly have come at a better time for the Tory party, which has led some to speculate that the bombing was a "false flag" attack.
Tory security cuts
It's undeniable that the Tory government have spent the last seven years putting their bonkers "let's cut our way to growth" ideological austerity agenda above the security needs of the nation.
They've imposed extreme cuts on the armed forces, the police, the emergency services, hospitals and the UK border agency.
Anyone who tries to deny these cuts have happened, or that such severe cuts could be made without consequences is lying through their teeth.
The Tories clearly put their economically illiterate cost-cutting drive way above the safety of the British public.
False flag?
There's a huge difference between noting that the Tories spent seven years endangering the British public cutting our security services and defunding our emergency services, and saying that they plotted this attack on purpose.
Just imagine the ramifications if they got caught out doing such a plot.
All it would take is one whistleblower or one bit of evidence, and they'd face universal condemnation.
Yes their poll lead had more than halved since the beginning of the election campaign, but would they really risk deliberately planning a terrorist attack against their own country to cling onto power?
That's an incredibly strong position to take with no evidence to back it up.
Discrediting others
In my view anyone making evidence-free claims that this was a Tory "false flag" attack against our own country is guilty of contaminating the political debate with extreme accusations.
By doing this they don't just discredit themselves, they discredit by false association all the reasonable people who oppose this horrifically malicious and incompetent Tory government.
The existence of these evidence-free smears can be picked up by pro-establishment lapdogs and spun into damaging "look at the unthinkable lies that lefties are spreading" narratives.
Only a tiny percentage of people might make these baseless claims, but they can be turned into ammunition by the hard-right and bounced back against all anti-Tories in general.
Do we let the terrorists win?
If this attack has succeeded in halting the Labour surge, and Theresa May walks into Downing Street with a whopping majority, it'll be a huge victory for terrorism.
The terrorist will not only have succeeded in killing and maiming dozens, and traumatising thousands, he'll have fundamentally altered the UK political landscape in favour of a very pro-Saudi, pro-Wahabi political party.
Labour have announced a policy of ending arms sales to Saudi Arabia until they stop committing war crimes in Yemen.
Jeremy Corbyn has talked openly and often about clamping down on the countries that fund ISIS/Daesh. The leaked Clinton emails revealed that the west have known that ISIS is being funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. There are at least 2,000 odd Saudis actually fighting for ISIS/Daesh and other Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq.
A derailed Labour surge and a thumping victory for Theresa May would certainly be music to the ears of the Islamist tyrants in Riyadh.
Conclusion
Of course the timing of this atrocity was highly beneficial to a Tory party on the ropes over their disgusting policies, their slipping poll lead, their uncosted manifesto, and their increasingly erratic leader, but I'm not going to entertain any evidence-free conspiracy theories that they plotted this outrageous attack to serve their own interests.
However the evidence-free assertions that the Tories plotted this attack themselves are damaging to the fabric of British political debate. The Tories might well be an incredibly callous party, but in my view they're also far too incompetent to pull something like that off without leaving incriminating evidence all over the place.
The important issues at the moment are that they deserve intense scrutiny about the extreme cuts they imposed on the armed forces, police, emergency services, hospitals and border agency. Also serious questions need to be asked about the emerging accusations that the bomber had been shopped to the police several times for having links to Islamist extremism.
Perhaps the most important issue to consider is the fact that if this atrocity has succeeded in derailing the Labour Party surge, and Theresa May walks into Downing Street with a huge majority, it'll be one of the biggest victories for Islamist terrorism to date.
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