And am I right in thinking that this 10% borrowing figure EXCLUDES all the Government's PFI liabilities?

Reply: Yes, it is just one year's extra borrowing by selling gilts!

The same process works with the reporting of global warming and carbon emissions. We now have science by press release and all global warming bodies have prolific and professional Press departments.

But if 10% of GDP is the current level, as JR declares it to be, the next twelve months will probably see around a 10% of GDP collapse in government revenue streams. A near doubling of the PBR to about GBP 300 plus billion is likely, at which point the dire straits into which Britain has been navigated by Brown in his 12 years as Chancellor and Prime Minister, will really hit home.

Anyone looking at our signature on the Maastricht Treaty where we committed to Euro Convergence Criteria, which specify borrowing of no more than 3% of GDP in any one year, please laugh now. We could be near to 20%.

Once the world's money markets see that this is the real position, the GBP will be heavily sold in a second rush. I don't expect John Redwood to write this side of the story as he is too patriotic, and wouldn't want to be associated with causing a run on the GBP.

But at some point the full horror story will spill.

The answer is: corruption.

It works like this. The govt employs spin doctors (at taxpayers' expense) who have special access to information (also collected at taxpayers' expense. e.g. details of the budget). This information is then selectively given to journalists. To journalists and cash strapped newspapers, this information is a valuable as money and it encourages them to report the story positively.

Journalists who don't toe the party line are denied access to this information and their careers suffer as a result. Alas, this information only helps them in the short term as they readers gradually desert them for less biased information sources such as blogs. This makes their employers even more cash strapped and so makes them more vulnerable to corruption.

This simple answer is to cut the government PR budget by 99%. It would save millions and make the country a better place. A win-win!

It might also be pointed out that the practice is illegal. The Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 makes it an offence to bribe people (which is what this selective leaking to journalists is).

In the same way that large land areas are best explained in Waleses, heights in Nelson's Columns and lengths in double-decker buses, so the sums borrowed by government are best explained (as you have done) by NHSs and defence spendings, with Wembley Stadiums and hospitals being used for smaller sums.

I can't help thinking that the figures are now just so huge that any comparisons will be beyond the comprehension of most of us, I know they are beyond mine.