Cyprus-Forum.com

[yialousa1971]

Anyone feeling smug about the Greek crisis should take a quick dekko at our own statistics.

Never mind Greece – look at BRITAIN'S deficit

Spending in April and May was 4.1 per cent higher than during the equivalent period in 2010. Government borrowing was £27.4 billion, up from £25.9 billion the previous year. This additional debt comes despite a series of tax rises: VAT, fuel duty, income tax and National Insurance have all gone up.

In other words, despite everything we keep reading about “the cuts”, spending and borrowing are both higher now than they were under Gordon Brown. Since the Coalition took office, our national debt has increased from 53 to 61 per cent of GDP.

Not that ministers are wholly to blame for these figures, of course. Labour bequeathed a country in recession, with falling tax receipts and rising social security payments. A large part of the increase is accounted for by the interest payments on the debt racked up during the wastrel Brown years. Most of the rest has gone on overseas aid, healthcare and a whopping 74 per cent net increase in our contribution to the EU budget.

Still, it’s worth remembering that some of our bailout money is going to governments with smaller deficits than our own. Can we afford, in the circumstances, to borrow a further £12.5 billion in order to prop up a currency which we declined to join?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danie ... s-deficit/

[AWE]

But the UK can devalue it's currency and inflate away it's debt both of which are not on the cards for Greece.

[supporttheunderdog]

But the UK can devalue it's currency and inflate away it's debt both of which are not on the cards for Greece.

yes I can remember Harold Wilson's Speech in 1967

From now on the pound is worth 14pc less on the foreign exchanges. That does not mean, of course, that the pound in your pocket or in your purse or in your bank has been devalued”

The price of foreign goods went up and we got inflation, which is one corollary of devaluation.

[Svetlana]

While the UK has huge debt it represents 'only' 61% of its national GDP; in Greece the debt represents 150% of GDP. Now Greece has to pay over 15% interest on Intrenational loans while the UK pays only 3.3.%; this represents the world's assessment of relative risk.

[B25]

yes I can remember Harold Wilson's Speech in 1967

Just how old are you mate??