Claims from The Taxpayers’ Alliance website that the fiscal stimulus measures contained in the Pre Budget report would result in double the national debt Britain incurred from the the Great War have been debunked by Don Paskini: “To get the figure of £255bn, the Taxpayers’ Alliance used the retail price index measure. As an economically valid

If this government is to retain the debt market's confidence it must shed its reputation for overly optimistic forecasts and must also try to avoid rolling over a large amount of debt at any one time

Here's the importance of debt, compared to other Federal and local State expenditure. I've taken the interest on the debt for the fiscal year 2006, plus the amount by which total debt increased in the 12 months ending Dec 29, 2006. That's because the outstanding debt is increasing even faster than the amount of interest being paid. (Figures are in billions of US dollars.) By way of ...

Charting a crisis So once again, it's taxpayers to the rescue. The bill will be big and will have several chunky elements: Debt - governments are taking on a stack of debt from floundering banks; in the US the transfer...

Charting a crisis So once again, it's taxpayers to the rescue. The bill will be big and will have several chunky elements: Debt - governments are taking on a stack of debt from floundering banks; in the US the transfer is adding hundreds of billions to taxpayer debt; here in the UK we've already got the Crock's £100bn, plus whatever implicit guarantees Brown may have given Llo...

Shocking new figures from the TaxPayers' Alliance reveal that the borrowing plans announced in yesterday's Pre-Budget Report will run up double the debt that Britain incurred winning the First World War. Total Debt increase 1914 - 1919 (2007 value): £255,106,544,018...

Now I thought that would get your attention. Well lets face it we are all - after the bidding war with debt for votes is over - going to have to pay more tax. Proposal 1: A national mortgage( or debt) tax : The Debt raised should be visibly paid back and calculated for each tax payer. A proportion of income tax should be re-badged as debt repayment tax and at the end of each year all taxpayers sho...

The Taxpayers' Alliance has done the research leg-work and confirms that Brown's debt bubble is twice what it cost to defeat the Kaiser.* Total Debt increase 1914 - 1919 (2007 value): £255,106,544,018 Total Debt planned 2008/09 - 2013/14 (PBR): £512,000,000,000 (For full methodology, see Sources & Methodology) *They are trying to find reliable data for the cost of WWII at the moment.

What happens when you borrow too much Is there any private debt Brown/Darling won't force taxpayers to guarantee? On top of the £6 trillion of bank debt he's already taken on, yesterday he started on the £1.5 trillion of household debt. True, the details of his £400 grand mortgage interest guarantee scheme seem particularly half-baked even by his standards, but the prin...

So this was the Recession Budget surprise: a seven-year horizon with no debt repayment plan. Ha! Bet you didn't expect that. Britain is to be transformed from a low-debt country into a nation saddled with a wartime debt without having fought a war. And as for today's Brownie - it's one the Stern Review used: fake juxtaposition. Brown presents the splurge (or splutter: £9.2bn th...