SIR – The national debt has now reached £1 trillion. Puzzlingly, this figure does not include bank bail-outs. Presumably they would prefer we didn’t know how much has been given to these jackals?

But hold on a minute! I thought this was the Government of deficit reduction and reduced Government borrowing?

The right-wing media will come up with all sorts of excuses as to why the debt has risen. Not least of which will be the Labour Party, the European Union, the poor, the unemployed, etc, etc.

Here is the real reason: Deficit reduction was simply the perfect excuse for the Tories to embark upon the most stringent cuts to the welfare system, the MOD and NHS in living memory.

The inevitable huge rise in unemployment has forced the Chancellor into unprecedented levels of borrowing.

Fortunately, because of their extremely cosy relationship with the gamblers in the City of London, the money they have borrowed has been at a very ‘favourable’ rate of interest.

However, as the spectre of a payments default grows (which it must) let us see how long the ‘favourable’ rate remains in place.

Christopher Hindle, Osterley Grove, Bradford