I found this article a bit of a worry:

From todays Independent newspaper:

Britons in debt to the tune of £1.13 trillion

* 66,000 people predicted to go bust this year; * Average household debt is £7,650 (exc. mortgage); * Two-thirds of EU credit card debt is British; * One in five students owes at least £15,000; * 40% of women keep debt secret from partners; * Half of all heavy debtors suffer from depression

Apparently the British government believes that this is an acceptable level of personal debt & is sustainable.

Maybe I have a longer memory than Blair & Brown but I remember a similar scenario in the late 80's, early 90's, where the whole thing went horribly wrong & ended with negative equity, suicides & the unelectability of the Tory Party.

To quote Charles Dickens:

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds and six pence, result misery.

David Copperfield, 1849