We are addicted to debt - Clegg calls for action
November 3, 2008 12:00 AM
Britain is addicted to debt and faces a terrible legacy as the recession begins to bite, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg warns today, as new analysis from the Liberal Democrats shows that total personal debt has risen by £1 trillion since Labour came to power.
This figure equates to an additional £10m for every hour Labour has been in government. Britons now owe £1.4 trillion in total, with debt repayments of nearly £95bn each year, equating to £3000 per second.
Commenting, Nick Clegg said:
"The fact that Britain's economic growth has been built on a mountain of personal debt means that we are now especially vulnerable to the global economic downturn.
"While we may have comparatively lower levels of public debt than other developed countries, Britain's level of personal debt is unrivalled anywhere in the world outside of the US.
"Labour and the Conservatives are fighting over the wrong bone: the real issue here is Labour's terrible legacy of personal debt. We must break our debt addiction before our children get sucked into it too.
"We need to see a huge publicity blitz on this issue from the BBC. If public sector broadcasting is to mean anything, it should mean stepping up to help in a public crisis.
"And financial literacy has to be a much bigger part of education. We have to be honest: maths for life is more important than trigonometry for most people."
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