Where's the beef?

So, I watched the first "Prime Ministerial" debate, more out of curiousity than in the expectation of enlightenment, and it was much as I expected; a beauty contest. I too thought Nick Clegg "won" it. I wonder how many people realise that he is far to the Left of the Labour Party (and no more a "Liberal" in the classical sense than Attila the Hun was?) I do wonder how many people followed me and didn't bother with the second debate? After all, I can only sit and listen to 90 minutes of empty lies so many times.

And the reason I say that their utterings are empty (I assume the reason I say they are lies is obvious; they're politicians, their mouths are moving, ergo they are lying) is that no-one has mentioned the elephant in the room. Elephant? More like a herd of the damn things. The budget deficit. The National Debt. Like it or not, this is all that matters. And it's all that matters because if it is not dealt with, nothing else will. There will be no money. Britain will default on its debt, have to be rescued by the IMF whose gaulieters will enforce the kind of austerity that will make what the Government should be doing look like a summer holiday.

And this is not news, or indeed even new. Read this and ask yourself when it was written;

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest {the State} become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."

Give up?

That was written in 55BC by the Roman commentator Cicero. Isn't it about time that politicians took some notice of him? Oh, hang on. They're politicians. They don't take any notice of anyone.