Now pay attention. Don’t worry, it’s nothing like as hard as the A-level questions that our dear prime minister thinks we should be able to tackle. There is no calculus, trigonometry or nasty compounding interest questions, but the sums are very large, and getting larger by the day.
The subject is the UK government’s financial position: is it dire, or merely grim? In November, it needed to borrow £22 billion, £8 billion more than in November 2021 (when it was paying so many people not to work) to cover its spending. In the 11 months it needed £126 billion to balance the books. Note to students: these numbers may look precise, but they are not, and depend significantly on exactly what is included, and how the calculation is done.
