In his autumn budget statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that the Conservatives don’t leave debts for the next generation. As such, he vowed to halve government borrowing over the next five years.
This promise is key to the government’s justification for austerity, spending cuts and other unpopular policies. Hunt is appealing to the commonly held idea that high levels of national debt unfairly burden the next generation – we betray our children and grandchildren by taking on too much debt, leaving them worse off and saddled with the costs after we are gone.
