Despite all the talk of the "cuts", with public spending soaring and tax revenues diving, UK national debt has more than doubled. Today, it exceeds £1.2 trillion, it was just £525 billion in March 2008 at the end of the 2007/08 financial year. Even after rounds of so called spending cuts and tax rises by chancellor George Osborne, the Treasury continues to spend £10 billion a month more than it collects in taxes. That"s means an extra £400 of debt per month for each of the UK"s 26 million households. Savage cuts in public spending or whopping taxes rises will be need if the debt mountain created by Gordon Brown is to be stopped from increasing, never mind paid back.