Talk:United Kingdom national debt

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Recent IP edits have added a lot of new material to this section, making it unwieldy. Almost all of the new material was unsourced, and much of it seemed rather speculative, so I have reverted it. It is possible that this whole section should be removed, or possibly should link to another page, with a proper economics focus on the remedies for government debt. Please discuss here rather than engage in edit wars. ----Asteuartw (talk) 11:10, 19 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any need for it. We don't need to have a section on fiscal theory in every single page about every single country's debt. 212.56.120.79 (talk) 19:52, 15 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There's an image "UK National Debt As Percentage of GDP" which, when you click on it, leads to a page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UK_GDP.png) with an enlarged image and various info about the image. A part of that page says: "Description English: UK National Debt as a percentage of GDP, from 1692 to present. Numbers from www.ukpublicspending.co.uk.".

www.ukpublicspending.co.uk is owned and run by an American Palin-supporting right-winger called Christopher Chantrill and has nothing to do with the UK government. My question is "Why isn't Wikipedia quoting numbers from an official UK government site, rather than from a possibly biased American site?". Theresonator (talk) 17:57, 18 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The image in the chart for the past 20 years of debt is now 3 years out of date, can this by updated/replaced? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ronmoger (talk • contribs) 11:18, 25 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I will create an updated version. Absolutelypuremilk (talk) 13:01, 25 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Also ignores the other debts. This article is really about UK National borrowing. The other debts are omitted.

Removed the claim the UK has never defaulted on its creditors. Post WW1, the UK state changes the coupons on its debts, which is a partial default. Equally, the UK state has regularly change the terms on its pension debts in favour itself paying less to its creditors. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7D:DA49:4300:ECAC:5A77:45C0:CF84 (talk) 20:14, 10 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"Arguably?" The whole first paragraph reads like an editorial and contains no citations. Jerry Stevens 12:15, 5 August 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jerrystevens (talk • contribs)

I think these should either be removed or made specific to a year. They are also inconsistent, the national debt being stated as "comfortably more" and about the same as defence spending — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gcmackay (talk • contribs) 07:22, 3 April 2015 (UTC) [reply]

— Agreed. As well as being inconsistent, as far as I can tell neither comparison has a reference cited either. Ref [5] doesn't mention Defence Spending in this context. -82.5.196.54 (talk) 12:16, 29 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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The Debt/GDP ratio is always higher than what the quoted figures tend to suggest. For example, for a straight Debt/GDP ratio where Debt is about 1.7 trillion GBP and GDP is approaching 2.7 trillion GBP the ration is about 63%, not the 81-85% quoted across several Wikipedia pages dealing with the same topic.

Either the years/sources used for the debt, GDP and % figures are wildly different, or the calculation of the ratio is more intricate than a straighforward division. Either way the article should attempt to clarify and reconcile the discrepancy. As someone with no background in Economics this discrepancy is one of the first things that catches my eye, so perhaps other members of the general public would also want to see the apparent discrepancy explained. — Preceding unsigned comment added by A. Christopher (talk • contribs) 10:08, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The debt number, as of a month ago, suddenly jumped to being 100 times too large. How did nobody notice this? 08:21, 23 February 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bubbarich (talk • contribs)

Vandalised on the 22nd. Now fixed. TwoTwoHello (talk) 13:22, 25 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Why does this graph only show countries that were heavily indebted? Isn't that bias? What about countries like the Netherlands or Austria? Reidlos (talk) 14:25, 18 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Most fonts suggest Venezuela's debt is now about 200% of its gdp:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonconstable/2019/11/08/venezuela-sinks-further-into--oblivion--debt-level-doubles-over-one-year/?sh=24a4f85e2c0b Iago c c (talk) 03:36, 3 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]