Mel Stride

View from Westminster Mel Stride Column

Mel Stride, the MP for the new Central Devon Constituency, gives his view from Westminster

It is five weeks since the general election and a lot has happened; not least a decision to extend this session of parliament from what would traditionally have been the end of June until early August – cutting the recess but allowing more time for parliamentary business.

The pace in Westminster is brisk and the feeling here is of a government in a hurry, hungry for change and driven by a belief that a failure to get a sound and rapid grip on some of the fundamental challenges could lead to danger ahead. There is no time to be lost not least in tackling our record level of indebtedness.

The size of the problem is clear but let me first make an important distinction – that between the ‘Deficit’ and the ‘Debt’. As a nation we have a total ‘Debt’ of around £890 billion. That is being added to at the rate of the ‘Deficit’ which is currently running at £156 billion a year. It’s like the Debt is a pool of water in which the UK economy is drowning and the Deficit is a water cannon that is filling the pool up with ever more water. Cutting the Deficit does not cut the Debt it just slows down the rate at which the Debt increases.

To put the Debt into perspective; at £43 billi

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