Liam Halligan, The Telegraph Economics Editor, yesterday exposed Brown’s cavalier attitude to our finances…
As a share of GDP, Government spending has increased from 37.4% in 1997 to 44.9%. Meanwhile, Government revenue has increased at a slower rate from 37% to 42.1%. To plug the gap the Chancellor has borrowed.
While in his budget speech five years ago, the Chancellor pledged to borrow £28bn between 2001 and 2006, he has in fact borrowed £129bn. We learnt this week that he intends to borrow a further £182bn between now and 2012.
To add to this mountain of debt, since 1997, the Chancellor has signed 700 PFI deals. The price tag? £150bn.
So far this year, spending has risen by 7.2%, and if spending is to stay on course and achieve the Chancellor’s 5% ceiling (raised last week), spending needs to be tightly restrained. Or he could just borrow more.
