Lies, damn lies, Nick Clegg and debt

Is Nick Clegg lying about what he’s doing to our national debt? The L-word is seldom used in politics, and in spite of their reputation most politicians try to get it right. To lie is to deliberately mislead — but it’s hard to think of any other word to describe what the Deputy Prime Minister is now doing about our national debt. He is trying to give the impression that the debt is being reduced, when in fact it is rising faster than almost any European country. Here’s what he said today:

‘We now know it’s going to take longer to clear up the mess left by Labour than we once hoped. And that’s why we’re even more determined as a coalition government to do it as fairly as possible, to spread the burden as evenly as possible so that we can wipe the slate clean for our children and our grandchildren.