So we all know that the UK economy is in an enormous hole that will take decades for us to dig ourselves out of. And we all know that this was caused by the bank bailout, right? This is the mantra we get from the Labour party and from their publicity department, the BBC. Gordon Brown’s profligate and out of control spending had nothing to do with it, surely?

Yet look at the real facts and you get a different story. The Office for Budget Responsibility at the time of the last budget calculated that the bank bailout was generating a PROFIT of £3.4 billion for the British taxpayer. Now this is pretty obvious when you think about it because the assets that we bought were bought at rock bottom price or less (we paid nothing for Northern Rock). And now the crisis is over they are worth considerably more.

In fact that £3.4 billion profit figure is a very cautious understatement. As the assets are slowly returned to the private sector they will realise far higher figures. Already the predicted sale of Northern Rock and some Lloyds Banking Group branches is said to be worth £4.4 billion pounds.

So yes, it was really Gordon Brown who got our public finances into such an immense mess, whatever the BBC say.