Fibster Nelson? Come on, admit the truth on debt!

By Derek Draper

Fraser Nelson at the Spectator Coffee House blog has responded to the challenge we posted last night. This is our reply:

Fraser, Thanks for your kind words about LabourList. We’ve made an ok start I think, with lots more to come. Alas your rebuttal is very shaky indeed. Here’s why: On any independent economic measure for comparing debt nationally or internationally the UK is lower than the US.

Which are we supposed to trust: the IMF and CBO economists or a hotch-potch of partisan points from the Tories and their friendly thinktank?

This old chestnut about potential liabilities, pensions and PFI etc. is an old Tory line. No govt measures their debt in this way – on the same basis should we be adding govt land assets to our net worth? It’s fantasy accounting. Just because the official measures don’t stand up the Tory claims, you guys seem determined to make up figures that do.

And while you claim debt is spiralling because of the bank recap, you are neglecting the fact that our loans are against their assets – Northern Rock, for example, has reportedly repaid something like half its loans already. And what would you and your right wing friends have proposed we should have done to support the banks instead? Nothing, I suspect.

Debt was lower when Northern Rock hit us than when we came into office – that’s why it can rise now as we take action on the banks and give real help now to help people through the downturn.

Fraser, stop being the voice of doom and stop dissembling, otherwise we’ll have to start calling you Fibster Nelson and listing all your Fibsters…

Yours in comradeship,

Derek Draper