Listening to the commentary on the budget, particularly on the BBC, there appears to be some confusion with the terms 'deficit' and 'borrowing'.
I am astounded that the Conservative Party allows the Government to get away with this.
Just to be clear, the deficit is the amount by which the government overspends each year. Each £1 of deficit amounts to an increase in borrowings of £1.
So when the Government says it will halve the deficit by 2014 it means that the amount of debt, which some day we have to pay off, will not be halved, but will still be going up. In 2014 the debt will still be increasing, but at a lower rate. Still going up, not down.
We need a surplus, remember that? a surplus to reduce the debt.
The debt must be reduced, and nothing else will do. Not a reduction of the deficit, a surplus, for several years.
This is no different from a family paying off its credit cards, which is happening all over Britain.
Ordinary people have understood it. The Government and the BBC have not.
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