Well done Sloper you missed my point quite spectacularly.
Your original post was about politics and perception in terms of the economy (why so many Guardian links otherwise?) and that's what I was replying to.
Thanks for the explanation but unlike Dave and Gideot, I understand the concept of debt and deficit perfectly well. In fact, this is exactly my point.
The Tories used and continue to use the economy as their personal political football. Everything bad about it was the last lot's fault and everything good is down to them, if the facts get in the way they just lie (do I really need to post the links about Cameron being told off for "confusing" debt and deficit again?!).
What I was saying is, why do Labour seem incapable of similar politics when they have so many open goals to aim at? The average person doesn't understand the intricacies of economics (or even the basics) which is why politicians get away with such crap.
The amount of borrowing is just one example. There's the moving the goalposts on growth, there's plan A failing miserably, there's nicking Labour's policy on capital expenditure, there's the fact that the economy has recovered despite, not because of Osborne, etc etc.
Labour should have been wiping the floor with Osborne for the past few years rather than allowing him to get into a position where he can take credit for the current upturn. That was what I was saying.
