Can thrips do this damage?

Growing in a polytunnel. I've noticed this past week there are many many holes on the tender upper leaves. Even part of a new bud just forming has had its stalked nibbled.
Fan leaves and other largish leaves have been left.

What bug goes for the tender small fresh leaves?

I found a pic online that looks like the damage i'm experiencing.

I've inspected the plants for hours looking for signs of bugs and found these tiny brown things which don't fly..only a few of them...are they thrips?

I sprayed 'buzz off' last night so hopefully will halt all nibbling behaviour! This has happened to me before...but not so quickly.

It's Purple Passion getting hit the hardest.

Any tips?

Was going to try Neem next if buzz off doesn't work.

(having trouble uploading a pic for some reason...will try again later)

This is exactly the damage im experiencing to the fresh growth.

That doesn't look like a thrip problem to me... THIS is what thrips do. It looks like they've sucked the chlorophyll right off the leaves. What you have looks more like a caterpillar, although it does seem like caterpillars usually start at the edge of leaves so i'm not 100% sure.

Thanks for clarifying Kagecog...i did wonder if thrips were able to be that destructive!
I also thought it's some kind of mini slug, caterpillar....but i've been amongst the plants for hours looking for evidence and there's nothing to be seen.
I'm growing in a polytunnel and there are these buzz flies about - they're bigger than regular flies...but they look exactly like mini wasps. I've even watched them...they land on the leaves but don't do any damage. They're looking for pollen and are mainly on my edible crop flowers.

It's doing my head in...this damage has been worse this year than any other - they've just started flowering and i hope that the damage doesn't continue, affecting bloom growth.

It won't stop unless you figure out what pest is doing the damage and spray. If you aren't too far along maybe some Bayer advanced.