It was just a few years ago that David Cameron was warning that Britain was “nearly bankrupt“. The claim was, of course, nonsense. With its own currency, its own monetary policy and the ability to borrow at historically low rates, the UK was never at risk of insolvency. In extremis, the Bank of England could simply buy up government debt (as it has done through quantitative easing).
But the suggestion that Britain was bankrupt, or at least close to being so (Cameron often casually alternated between the two), was an immensely valuable means of justifying the coalition’s austerity programme. Since 2010, Cameron has repeatedly invoked the deficit and the “tough choices” required to reduce it when confronted with the social and economic harm caused by the cuts to welfare and other government programmes.
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