British Prime Minister David Cameron misled the nation by claiming his government is paying off Britain’s debt, in a three-minute party election broadcast shown on itv on January 23.

“So though this government has had to make some difficult decisions, we are making progress,” he said. “We’re paying down Britain’s debts.”

This simply isn’t true.

According to the government’s forecasts, Britain’s national debt is set to rise from £770 billion (us$1.25 trillion) in 2010, shortly before this government took office, to £1.36 trillion when Parliament stands down for elections in 2015.

That’s an increase of roughly £600 billion. Or £10,000 (us$16,000) for every man, woman and child. This is not paying down the debts in any way.

“What Cameron said is not an exaggeration,” wrote the Spectator’s editor, Fraser Nelson. “It’s a straight falsehood, and one that demeans his office.”

Here’s the video:

The discussion about debt in the broadcast wasn’t just a picky point. A large chunk of time was spent asking people how much they thought the deficit had shrunk. They all talked about changes of just a few percentages, before it was revealed that the deficit had been cut by 25 percent.

It sounds impressive. It’s deliberately deceptive.

When the government says it’s cutting the deficit, most think it’s reducing the debt the country owes. That’s not true. Debt is the total amount of money the government owes. Deficit is the amount of money the government borrows each year. It is the rate at which the debt grows. (For a more detailed explanation, see “Britain’s Fiscal Cliff.”)

By boasting that the government is cutting the deficit by 25 percent, those politicians are just saying that the debt isn’t growing quiet as fast as it used to be.

Exploding debt is one of the biggest problems Britain and America face. Yet our leaders refuse to be honest about it. For more on this vital subject, see Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s recent video “We Don’t Have a Spending Problem.”