I’ve just heard on the BBC news that the National Debt (that’s the UK, by the way) has hit £1 trillion. That’s news; that’s big news; doubtless our chief Prophet of Doom, Robert Peston, is getting ready to intone his ponderous views on its significance.

However, personal debt in the UK exceeded £1 trillion long, long ago. When my book “Back to the Back” was published in 2010, UK consumer debt (i.e. mortgages, credit card debt, loans, etc, etc) was almost £1.5 trillion and was slightly more than GDP, the usual measure of national output.

As British National Treasure Michael Caine famously said: “Not a lot of people know that.”

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