Ryler posts a link than confirms the truth: Conservative borrowing is higher than Labour.
Debt is relatively unimportant compared to deficit, which when the Tory/Lib coalition came to power was somewhere around 10% of gdp, now it's less than 2% so on an annual basis we are borrowing more than 5 times
less than when Labour were in power just for annual expenditure.
Debt increased dramatically in 2008/9 because of the collapse of the banking system, followed by bank bail outs followed by 'quantitative easing', I can't find a definitive figure but I would 'guess' QE accounts for 30-40% of the national debt. QE is not the same as 'devaluing' currencies as was done in the 60's, nor is it 'printing money', which can lead to hyper inflation, it's just a very clever accounting scam, it appears on the 'Govt debt' column because it has to be shown somewhere (unlike PFI which is another story). It benefits the rich rather than the poor which is unfortunate, bearing in mind the worlds banking problems were not created by the working classes.
Here's the thing, Japan has been using a form of QE for donkeys years, the USA has been at it for years, even the EU is at it now (much to Germanys disgust), and not one single country has ever repaid a single penny, dollar, euro or yen, and they never will, in fact if they did, there could potentially be a financial apocalypse. Aside from all that, if you borrow money from yourself, and you don't pay it back, what do you do? punch yourself on the nose? Govt debt will diminish with growth and inflation, amounts are immaterial it's the % of gdp that's important.
There was a time when the IMF might get involved and give us a good kick in the nuts, what they can't do is give the entire western world and capitalism a kick in the nuts, because the whole house of cards just might fall over.
