Only the Lib Dems give their figures... and even they are still £157,000,000,000 short

Yesterday the Liberal Democrats released their manifesto in the UK general election and were the first to put their figures in the back.

But, like the Conservatives and Labour,  the only actual contribution that they show,  to the cutting of our enormous Government spending defecit of £167Bn,  is around a flat £10Bn a year, from next year. 

They offer to raise the threshold of personal tax to £10,000  -  but that costs a staggering £17Bn in itself.  So, dutifully, they scrape up an odd £17Bn to pay for that from a mix of some cuts and from some tax increases.

Then over the page, they set out their "Savings".   But look all down this list, and you'll find about £10Bn saved - next year, not this - and then about the same for four more years ahead.   But this defecit of ours is an annual committment - we're not short £167Bn once, we're short that much every year.   So saving an odd ten off the top is good,  but barely a fifteenth of the pain we'll need to inflict to solve this problem eventually.

This is the problem with all three parties.   None of them can bear to show us the true horror of that much cash needing to be saved.   In truth, since the gap is around £170Bn now and annual government spending is around £700Bn,  we need to somehow reduce the cost of government by around 25%.   Yes 25%.  A quarter.   Or, to split it between taxes and expenditures,  we need to raise tax revenues by at least 10-12% and cut spending by at least 10-12%.   But that is still massive on both sides of the equation.   And none of them will explain any of this. 

Will we find out more in the third (economy-focussed) TV debate ?   I doubt it.