THE Autumn Statement turned out to be a continuation of the party political broadcast we have seen at weekly PMQs.

All the facts and figures will be worked on by newspapers and pundits, much beyond my educational achievements, but I can see that the national debt under this Government has gone up from £811 billion they inherited to £1,451 billion – or £22,611 for each man, woman and child in the UK.

We now have the biggest national debt in the EU at 77 per cent of GDP. I know we have to sell Government bonds to raise money, but our central bank has purchased 32 per cent, although due to quantitative easing, the bank has used virtually printed money to make their purchase possible; sounds very dodgy to me.

Does their posturing deserve our votes in the next election? Mr Cameron thought his boast that promises of a EU referendum would give him victory. Yet his boast that only the Tories would give us a referendum fell through when Ukip offered the same.

The constant bleating that Labour caused the recession conveniently forgets that the world recession was caused by bankers’ greed buying bad investments; borrowing had to rise to bail out Northern Rock, RBS, Lloyds and others.

Gordon Brown would not join the Euro, he made the Bank of England independent, brought in the minimum wage to stop greedy employers paying a pittance.

The LibDem idea of taking 300,000 of the poorest out of paying tax surprisingly now find income tax receipts down.

You do not help the really poorest as they do not pay income tax; to say tax will not be paid on £10,000 shows they do not realise how difficult it is to raise a family on that amount.

Rich and poor alike have to pay increased VAT, yet this tax increase hurt the poorest most.

Dennis Barton, Woodthorpe, York.