Reality Check: the £100 billion problem nobody talks about episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 22, 2026 · 21 MIN

Reality Check: the £100 billion problem nobody talks about

from Best of the Spectator

There is an area of public spending nearly double what Britain spends on defence, more than policing borders or our streets. It's servicing the costs of what Britain has borrowed in the past. The growing debt bomb is continuing to climb with real consequences for the taxpayer. Michael Simmons takes a look at the data and speaks to the economist Paul Johnson about what political measures the government will have to take to tackle Britain's debt crisis, what it means for the taxpayer and why the reviving modern monetary theory movement is nonsense. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There is an area of public spending nearly double what Britain spends on defence, more than policing borders or our streets. It's servicing the costs of what Britain has borrowed in the past. The growing debt bomb is continuing to climb with real consequences for the taxpayer. Michael Simmons takes a look at the data and speaks to the economist Paul Johnson about what political measures the government will have to take to tackle Britain's debt crisis, what it means for the taxpayer and why the reviving modern monetary theory movement is nonsense. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Reality Check: the £100 billion problem nobody talks about

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This episode was published on February 22, 2026.

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There is an area of public spending nearly double what Britain spends on defence, more than policing borders or our streets. It's servicing the costs of what Britain has borrowed in the past. The growing debt bomb is continuing to climb with real...

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