Trying to explain the financial disaster we are in is never easy; noone - not even an economist truly understands what 178 billion pounds looks like...but the principle of debt people do understand. We find that the best analogy on the doorstep is the credit card bill.
Do you pay it off or keep deferring - as the debt gets even bigger. As Gordon Brown said recently:
“We must reduce our deficits steadily according to a plan, but we must do nothing this year that will put our recovery at risk.”
Bear this in mind - we pay more on interest on the debt than the whole education budget for this country...that is a lot of debt...and a very big credit card bill to keep ignoring. We ignore it at our peril in my view.
