The Indebted Kingdom factbook

Foreword

For decades, successive governments have paid lip-service to the importance of keeping a handle on the public finances. Just as their constituents have to carefully manage their own budgets, monitoring carefully what comes in and how much they are spending, politicians know that they too are expected to treat the nation’s budget with a similar level of respect. Ever since the TPA was founded in 2004, we have been reminding them of this responsibility. Unfortunately, most have chosen short term gain at the price of long term pain. As a result our debt is spiralling catastrophically out of control, with debt interest payments alone now accounting for tens of billions of pounds of government spending every year. For too long our policymakers have ignored the scale of the problem, preferring to kick the can down the road, but the nation’s finances are now reaching a breaking point. It’s time to get serious about the national debt.

Rory McGregor
Chairman, TaxPayers’ Alliance