Nick clegg debt

Britain’s national debt is rising faster than any of the basket-case Eurozone countries that George Osborne is so fond of disparaging but here’s the thing: only 16pc of voters realise that debt is going up. Why? Are they all thick? Or could it be that our political class is systematically misleading them? I’m inclined towards the latter. The odd debt vs deficit slip is forgivable. But ministers do seem to trying to exaggerate – even lie about – what they are doing to the national debt. And I’m afraid that Nick Clegg is my Exhibit A.

The Deputy Prime Minister was recently caught out telling Essex factory workers that his government would “wipe the slate clean” of debt – in fact, the coalition is upping debt by a staggering £465 billion over five years, more than the £319 billlion that Labour borrowed over five years. Even the Guardian picked up on Clegg’s unforgivably misleading ‘clean slate’ analogy.