"David Cameron tells porkies about Britain’s national debt"

Anyone might assume this headline was taken from a left of centre Labour Party supporting source. What is remarkable is that it is taken from the respected, right of centre Spectator.

The article accuses Cameron of being "so astonishingly dishonest" in last Wednesday's Conservative Party Political Broadcast and robustly refutes the claim made by Cameron in the broadcast that "...we are making progress. We're paying down Britain's debts".

The article attributed to the Spectator's Editor, Frazer Nelson, goes on:

“David Cameron’s policy is to increase Britain’s debt by 60 per cent, more than any European country. To increase it more over five years than Labour did over 13 years.  Just yesterday, we learned the national debt had hit £1,111 billion and it’s heading to £1,400 billion.

By no stretch of the English language can this be described as “paying down Britain’s debts.” What Cameron said is not an exaggeration. It’s a straight falsehood, and one that demeans his office. He has previously used different language, saying that he is “dealing with the debt”. The below graph says it all:

The day after the broadcast Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves MP said:
"This suggests that the Conservative Party may be attempting to deliberately mislead the public about these statistics and the Government’s record"

Maybe what is equally worrying as the blatant falsehoods is that the national news channels and newspapers have made so little comment on this palpable untruth and they have in effect colluded with peddling this Tory led Government's propaganda.

There is little doubt since the 2010 election the Tory led Government have been effective in promoting the belief that the deficit was caused by an overspending Labour Government. This has been repeated so often that it rarely gets challenged by the media anymore. At this point Tory spokespeople omit to mention that as late as 2008 George Osborne was actually advocating sticking to Labour spending pledges.

When it comes to facts, with the one exception of the 1974-79 Labour Government, it is the Tory Goverments' record which makes Labour Government the low cost  option.




Government expenditure as percentage of GDP

The credibility of this Tory led  Government is rapidly dissolving before us.

The slogan "You can't  trust the Tories with the NHS" can now be supplemented with "You can't trust the Tories with the facts".