This is very good, very good indeed:
In that time according to the House of Commons Library net total government borrowing has been £1,618 billion: £155 billion of borrowing predated that period, most paying for WW2.
Of that sum 67.5%, or £1.092 billion was borrowed by the Tories. 32.5% or £526 billion was borrowed by Labour.
The Tories have been in office for longer, of course. Restated per year the Tories have borrowed £24.3 billion a year on average in historic prices.
Labour has borrowed £18.8 billion a year on average.
Labour repaid debt in 7 years. The Tories in just 4.
In current prices Labour has borrowed approximately £28 billion a year and the Tories £33.6 billion.
The Tories are always the party that borrows most.
Tories have been the most recent office holders. Money is worth less now than it used to be. Thus, without adjusting for inflation, we have no information here. Only partisan propaganda.
In an election where lies will play an important part in the messages some parties will deliver some facts will help. Start with these.
Well, yes, why don’t we start with facts.
We could even think about starting with an interesting question. If borrowing pays for itself through increased growth and thus tax revenues why is there a net debt?
emeritus: having retired but allowed to retain their title as an honour. No way.
Well, he does claim to have made some adjustment: In current prices Labour has borrowed approximately £28 billion a year and the Tories £33.6 billion. It being the spud, though, I suspect the adjustment is more than a little dodgy.
How much of the Tory borrowing was because they inherited a broken economy from Labour and was driven by our automatic stabilisers? The economy in 1979 and 2010 was teetering on the edge of collapse and even though we got so called austerity there was still massive borrowing.
His total adjustment factor for the Tories is 1.79 while his adjustment factor for Labour is 1.48. This seems obviously wrong to me. Surely, seeing as the Labour borrowing is older on average, the adjustment should be higher than for the Tories?
Scratch that, it was my error. The Tory adjustment is 1.38.