When neoliberals go on about ‘the debt’ and that we’re skint, it is good to remind them that the largest chunk of debt is owned by one UK government branch to another. The Bank of England holds around 300 billion of our current one trillion debt. This fact is just one reason to assume that when one enters a discussion about the country’s economy, one has entered into a twilight zone of unquestioned assumptions and agenda driven selection.

How many times have we heard the charge that ‘labour ruined the economy’? How many times have we heard, by now, that austerity is the only way forward? Both those statements depend on a non-understanding of national finance. Both those statements are wrong, because in the end, debt or surplus depends on which column you put something in your head. This was the basis of an argument I got into. Someone was…