After 5,000 days of Tory rule, they’ve increased YOUR national debt MASSIVELY
Where has all the money gone?
That’s the question from Carol Vorderman, and she’s echoing economist Gary Stevenson who has been saying much the same thing for many months now.
Here’s her analysis, as posted on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter):
We've had 5000 days of Tory Rule today 😳 I've done some maths
🔹Since May 2010, the
NATIONAL DEBT HAS INCREASED,
on average,
by a staggering
£380 MILLION A DAY
– EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR #5000DAYSWhich begs the question….
Where has all our money gone?I wouldn't trust the… pic.twitter.com/d8DjtF71Dn
— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) January 18, 2024
As she demonstrates, David Cameron came into office claiming (wrongly) that the national debt of £770 billion and deficits run by Gordon Brown’s previous ‘New Labour’ administration were unsustainable and had to be brought down, for the good of us all.
“We’re all in it together,” remember?
Instead, he and his successors – Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and now Rishi Sunak – have spent public money at a record-breaking rate, increasing the debt to more than three times as much as in 2010.
Bear in mind that it had taken hundreds of years for the debt to reach £770 billion. The Tories then tripled it in just 13 years.
They have been spendthrifts on a scale never before seen in the UK.
And they have nothing to show for it.
The standard of living for the vast majority of people has plummeted.
Public services have been starved of resources and neglected.
The National Health Service has been starved of staff and hived off to private companies whose work is substandard and poor value for money.
The economy has stagnated and wages – apart from those paid to MPs and top executives – are now worth a fraction of what they were in 2010.
If the last nearly-14 years of Tory rule had been a business transaction – we had paid for them to provide a service – then we would be within our consumer right to demand our money back.
But it doesn’t work like that.
Government, it seems, is the greatest con trick of them all because we lose our money legally.
This is an election year, though. We have an opportunity to make a big change.
But the media are telling us the only choices are the Conservatives, who will break the national bank even more than they have done already, or Keir Starmer’s New New Labour, that is promising to do the same.
For all our sakes, we – the voters – have to change our thinking and make the change that the self-interested, snouts-in-the-trough political swine in both those parties can’t handle.
We have to get rid of them all and vote for somebody else.
Elections used to be about looking at what every candidate in your constituency was offering and voting for the one whose package most closely corresponded to what you thought you needed.
When did they start being about voting tribally for the team that told you they represented you when – if you actually bothered to check – they really didn’t?
When did we stop voting in our own interest and start voting in theirs?
If you vote for Rishi Sunak’s team this year; if you vote for Keir Starmer’s team this year; even if you vote for Ed Davey’s team this year, you will be voting to enrich the members of their parties and will achieve nothing for yourself or your family.
Carry on voting tribally for the same gangs and you will ensure that you, your children, and their children, are progressively impoverished and enslaved by the people who are recommending themselves to you now, for their own enrichment and self-aggrandizement.
That is their plan. And it has been working spectacularly well for the last 13 and a half years.
When are you going to break that pattern, stop harming yourself and do what needs to be done?
It’s time to change. Do it before it’s too late.
We know where the money has gone. Into the tax-free offshore bank accounts of Tory donors.
THE LUDICROUS NARRATIVE OF NATIONAL DEBT – PART 1
An epidemic of National Debt Fever seems to have taken hold again. All that money to “pay back” or “pay down”….. to avoid being a “burden on future generations”. Cuts in public services, damp down wage demands, austerity must be continued etc….What a load of utter twaddle!
About 2/3 years ago, Richard Murphy (“Funding the Future” website – well worth a look) produced a short video (less than 10 mins) entitled “what part of the National Debt do you want to repay?”. It is easily found on You-tube & and we can add the question “why?” as he indeed does. If you don’t want to watch/listen here’s the gist of it (& figures updated).
The erroneously-called National Debt is said to be circa £2.3 Trillion. Don’t panic; for starters the figure is wrong because the government has redeemed (i.e. bought back the previously sold gov bonds) via Quantitative Easing (QE), £900 billion of it. An in-house company (a division of HM Treasury called the Asset Finance Purchase Facility – APF) was created, & was electronically credited with that £900 billion by the Bank of England (BoE) – note that this is nothing more than newly-created out-of-thin-electronic-air money, nothing more than keyboard entry! Note also that BoE is a public institution, owned by the government. The deal is done, settled, finito. No further action required. The real figure left is therefore £1.4 Trillion. £400 billion of this is gov bonds purchased by foreign governments worldwide who wish to trade & transact with each other & us internationally in £s Sterling. The alternatives would be costly, complicated, cumbersome, & far too slow. These foreign governments do not want this money back – it is a useful, pragmatic, cost-saving facility – a necessity! So why would anybody want to pay this back or down? The figure now left is £1 Trillion. £800 billion of that is owned by pension, hedge, & insurance funds, & to a lesser extent by banks & affiliates. Such institutional funds have an imperative need to lodge at least 65% to 70% of funds under management in a totally & absolutely safe environment – the continued reliability of your private or occupational pension payments or insurance pay-outs etc., utterly depends on this. That “environment” is government bonds. Again a useful, pragmatic, & absolute necessity! Without this safe facility, they would have to rely on risky speculation. Remember Robert Maxwell & think on. So why would anybody want to pay this back or down?
This leaves £200 billion in the form of ISAs (& all of the previous & other forms of tax exempt savings) & Premium Bonds. A few millionaire ISA savers do exist, but the majority of these again 100% safe savings belong to smaller & general public, savers & investors, who prefer this kind of longer-term savings vehicle. Does anyone want to deprive these people of such safe & tax exempt savings? Why would anybody want to pay this back or down?
If it is the interest payable on gov bonds that concerns you, well, it shouldn’t. This, like QE money, is simply created electronically & credited to private commercial bank reserves (originally & similarly created by BoE) held at BoE on behalf of those banks. They in turn are simply instructed to adjust (increase) the customer accounts of those that formerly had purchased these gov bonds. Note that all of this represents the transfer of data & information only – I delight in affirming that no-one is running around with wheelie-bins & black bin bags full of the folding stuff!
So, £900 billion bought back from institutional fund bond holders who essentially had no wish to sell them back + £800 billion still retained by them + £200 billion retained in NS&I ISAs & premium bonds, + £400 billion owned by foreign governments = £2.3 Trillion of the so-called National Debt which accounts for just about every penny of it. You should also note that, apart from the £400 billion of foreign government UK bond purchases, all of the monies & bonds owned & managed by institutional & in tax exempt funds, is YOUR money. The vast majority of so-called “National Debt” is therefore simply a record of what we collectively OWN. Isn’t it time we started calling it “National Asset”?
And why do we want to inconvenience all of these bond holders & or to force them into risky speculation. Why do we take part in this ludicrous & false narrative of National Debt?
So, which part of the National Debt do you want to repay – & why?
Thanks for your detailed comment – you’ve clearly put a lot of thought into how government debt is structured. You’re right that much of the so-called “national debt” is held in safe assets like government bonds, pension funds, ISAs, and QE mechanisms. And yes, technically some of it represents money we collectively “own” in one way or another.
But here’s the crucial point: whether it’s a “debt” or “asset” on paper, the UK government still has obligations to pay interest and manage cash flows. Those obligations shape policy: they constrain public spending, affect taxation decisions, and influence the economy. Even QE isn’t free – it comes with opportunity costs and financial risks, and it doesn’t magically make all the money spent over the last 13+ years disappear.
The concern in my original post isn’t just about the number itself. It’s about how government money has been spent, and the outcomes for ordinary people. Over 5,000 days of Tory rule, debt has soared while wages stagnated, living standards fell, public services were starved, and essential institutions like the NHS were partially privatised. QE and bond structures don’t change the fact that billions of pounds have flowed into areas that provide little or no public benefit, leaving households worse off.
So, while it’s technically correct that some of the national debt is held in “safe” government-controlled forms, the broader question remains: how has government spending under successive administrations actually served the public? On that score, the record is bleak.
In short, the details of debt mechanics are interesting – but they don’t excuse a government for mismanagement, neglect of public services, or failing to protect living standards. That’s the debate we need to have, especially in an election year.