Labour MP’s video explaining UK debt with biscuits racks up 3.3m views

Evening Standard

A perennial head-scratcher for progressives is how to craft a simple, compelling message on the economy. One Labour MP found the answer in a few packets of M&S biscuits.Gordon McKee, who represents Glasgow South, has racked up more than 3.3m views on X with an 101-second video in which he demonstrates the UK’s debt to GDP ratio using stacks of custard creams and chocolate bourbons.

Transcript

00:00There's a reason Britain feels broke and it's probably not what you think.

00:02I'm going to explain but first of all you need to understand one thing.

00:05It's called debt to GDP ratio. Sounds boring, kind of is boring but it's important.

00:10Basically means how much debt the government has compared to how rich the country is.

00:13When I was born in 1994 it was about 30%. In other words for every pound the country made

00:18the government owed 30p in debt and it stayed that way until around about 2008 when the banks

00:23ran out of money and we had to bail them out. So then debt jumps to 60%.

00:28Over the next 10 years of Tory government it rises to about 80%. Then some guy eats a bat in Wuhan

00:34and now nobody can go to work. So the government has to borrow even more money and today Britain's

00:39debt to GDP ratio is roughly 100%. But the weirdest thing is that's not even the main problem because

00:45in France the debt to GDP ratio is 113%. In America it's 120%. Japan's 240%. What's really mad is that

00:55Britain is paying more interest on its debt than any of these countries because the people lending

00:59money to the government aren't just looking at the total amount of debt but how quickly it's racking

01:03up. Think of it like this. Japan is your mate who's always in his overdraft. America's the guy

01:07who spends a lot but always shows up to work. Britain was the sensible one but we've bought a dog,

01:12a new car and a hair transplant all in one month. We've pretended that we've had a big pay increase but

01:17in reality we've just got a credit card with a lot of debt. So the people who loan the government money

01:22are starting to charge a lot more for it. We're now in the crazy position where 8% of all of the

01:27money the government spends is just servicing debt. That's more than double the entire defence

01:32budget and if you're spending more servicing your debt than you are defending your country,

01:37that is not good. If you want to know what I think we should do about that then follow me for part two.

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