Merryn Somerset Webb

And I suppose none of this would matter.

None of this would matter at all if the economy was growing properly.

This is the core problem.

This is the core problem.

If the economy was growing properly in real terms by 2%, 3%, 4% a year, if GDP per capita was growing at any particular speed, then we wouldn't particularly have to worry about cutting spending because these problems take care of themselves.

But it's just not.

It's just not.

So this is where we come to your but, which I'm hoping was going to be... It's just not yet.

And you're right.

I mean, growth is the great redeemer for debt problems, public debt problems in particular.

You grow your way rather than digging your way out of a debt problem.

So that ups the ante on us making good on the oft-heard claim from politicians over many decades now, Marin, who have had growth as their number one objective.

Here's the but.

Here's the good news, right?

If you were a Martian, or any other planet actually, an alien, looking at not the public balance sheet, but the private balance sheet of the UK, you would say, in aggregate, it is in rude health.

I mentioned those fiscal deficits that have been running for a whole century.

Actually, both households and companies in the UK

are running financial surpluses.

And if you look at their balance sheet fundamentals, levels of debt, both corporate and household, are at modest levels by historical standards.

So in terms of the balance sheet fundamentals of UK PLC,