The economy is stalling, but voters haven’t noticed just how miserable the Tories’ record is

The state of the British economy is barely registering on the election campaign trail, writes James Moore

A contraction in manufacturing was a feature of the latest official economic figures (PA)

It’s the economy, stupid. That line became a part of America’s political lexicon during the 1992 presidential campaign after one of Bill Clinton’s strategists, James Carville, scrawled it on a whiteboard.

It’s a slight misquote. He actually wrote, “The economy, stupid”. But the sentiment’s the same whichever formulation you prefer. It reflects the fact that Americans will typically forgive any character flaws in their commander-in-chief if USA plc is motoring.

That should be a cause for serious concern for the Democrats because it’s still creating thousands of new jobs. Some 266,000 in November, according to US Labor Department figures released on Friday.