Deficit or debt?

It seems most people don’t realise that all of these austerity measures we face will simply clear the budget deficit in five years. Put simply, by removing the deficit, the overall national debt will cease to rise, but that debt will still be in place – and it’s currently set at around £900bn, and rising. That means, come 2015, we will collectively owe over £1trn, a staggering sum when you consider as recently as 2004 the national debt stood at just £350bn.

This national debt isn’t some kind of magic figure we don’t need to concern ourselves with: apparently the interest payable on this debt each year equates to the entire education budget, so instead of using that money to improve services we effectively flush it down the drain.

Yet, it appears that – just like the question of over-population – the national debt is something to be brushed under the carpet, something we can leave for our children. I can but hope they treat us with the contempt we deserve when we hand them the bill. We just collectively be ashamed of ourselves.