Ed Balls again

[Waldorf]

The first thing that Brown did as chancellor was to pay off the debt from the Major government.

No he did not. The government debt (ie our debt) have never been paid off.

The deficit was turned into a surplus for 4 years, due to Brown keeping to Ken Clarke's spending plans. After the 2001 election, they then let rip with the cheque book and the deficits started to pile up.

Deficit = the annual shortfall of tax revenues over government spending
Debt = the accumulation of the annual deficits

[centurian]

Labour ran a deficit through the best economic times since the war justifying this as OK as there never would be another downturn, never, ever, as Brown had golden rules and he had 'fixed' the UK economy forever. Idiots like you believed him.

WHS

"An End to Boom and Bust" wasn't just a political sound-bite. Gordon Brown actually believed his own PR bull - he really thought he had abolished recessions, so that the normal rules of "don't run a deficit during a boom" simply didn't apply to him.

[DodgyAgent]

The borrowing figures for 1986-1996 include a period of recession and the resulting increase in borrowing due to higher government spending and lower tax revenue. The trend was clear, so Brown was left a golden legacy of declining inflation, declining deficits and a growing economy.

The borrowing for 1997-2007 covered a period of growth, helped by public and private borrowing, low inflation (helped by Chinese imports to suppress prices).

What your figures fail to show is that in the TWO years following 2007, the government deficit was a massive £225.3 billion.

Labour left the coalition a huge financial mess, which was never going to take a few years to sort out.

Which is what is meant by context . Well pointed out.