We're screwed but shhh don't worry the plebs

The BBC report very quietly that:

"UK public sector borrowing was the highest on record in May, the Office for National Statistics said.

Public sector net borrowing was £19.9bn in May, and has already reached £30bn in the first two months of the financial year.

This is double the level of one year ago, and even higher than the £19bn borrowed in March.

The total outstanding government debt has risen to £774.8bn, £150bn more than one year ago, equal to 54.7% of UK GDP. "

Did you hear that reported on the BBC news? Of course not, why do you think the Iranian elections and the "attacks" on Roma in Northern Ireland are being covered in such detail?

The BBC report continues:

"In April's budget, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, forecast that borrowing this year would reach £175bn.

Excluding investment spending, the public sector current budget deficit was also at a record of £17.5bn, compared to £10.6bn in the same month in 2008.

"The public finances for May were absolutely dire, deteriorating even more than feared as tax revenues continued to be decimated across the board," said Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight.

And Capital Economics estimated that the total public borrowing was now on course to reach £200bn, or 14% of GDP. "

Got that? The summary would be that the UK economy is even more screwed than most people thought. But "the narrative" is a slow economic recovery (in fact there are less than 12 days to the end of the recession according to Gordon Brown's estimate) and if the facts don't fit "the narrative" then the facts will have to hang.

The BBC report then turns to tax receipts:

"Corporation tax receipts fell by 27%, VAT revenues were down 18%, and income tax fell 11% compared with the same month in 2008."

The BBC always keen to support Gordon Brown end their article thus:

"The rapidly growing public borrowing will fuel the political debate about what level of cuts needs to be made to public spending to bring the budget into balance.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, accused the Conservatives of planning to cut "vital services" by 10% - a charge David Cameron rejected. "

So there is a political debate about the level of cuts needed and Gordon Brown has accused the Conservatives of planning to cut vital services. No mention of the Conservative claims that Labour are planning cuts? No mention because the Labour/BBC "narrative" is Labour investment v Tory cuts.