Brussels said UK public debt will rise from around 60pc of GDP this year to 160pc by 2020, 406pc by 2040, and 760pc by 2060 unless there are drastic spending cuts.
Pretty scary, no?
Of course, this assumes that no gvernment does anything at all to try and change policy:
A UK Government spokesman cast doubt on the figures. \”This report has no basis in reality and calls into question the ability of the EC to carry out credible economic analysis,\” he said. \”It takes no account of any member state\’s plans to reduce its debts and only shows what would happen if no government took any action to reduce borrowing for 50 years. The UK Government set out a clear plan to halve the deficit over the next four years.\”
Quite true: but it does rather bring into focus the point that some government, some time, does in fact need to o something about the public deficit. It isn\’t all about the financial crisis, there is a structural deficit as well. Which needs to be, at least over the cycle (as Brown famously promised) sorted out.