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The debt crisis Public deserves an answer
IT WAS ironic yesterday that the Government set out wide-ranging plans for the credit card industry to reduce the number of people struggling with unsustainable debts.
The debt mountain means consumers in the UK owe an astonishing 230bn on credit and store cards, overdrafts and loans.
Yet the debt crisis is of course exactly one facing the Government's own finances and yesterday Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron, both on visits to Yorkshire, offered sharply contrasting views on the subject.
Mr Brown vowed again to spend his way out of the recession, while Mr Cameron urged the Government to start making budget savings now to ease the pain of deep spending cuts later.
The Conservatives are trying to make the debate about honesty and Ministers' failure to be straight about the scale of public spending cuts which are needed. But they are also keen to move the subject to one of leadership.
Mr Brown has plainly shown little enough of that since he moved into Number 10. Mr Cameron said he could offer that leadership, which he told delegates to the Local Government Association conference in Harrogate, involved giving a candid assessment of the situation facing the public finances.
But that only goes halfway. Identifying the problems does not amount to a coherent programme for Government – that will only come with delivering ideas for tackling public debt.
In truth, the country is being ill served – again – by its politicians, who appear to hope they can creep into power without coming clean about the cuts that are needed.
Yesterday's measures to reduce personal debts have been widely welcomed. But the country deserves to know how the nation's debts will be tackled too.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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