The national debt since 1970 has averaged about 50% - currently it's
39% (including PFI but not public sector pensions, since the former's
new and the latter hasn't changed). So the government has a decent
amount of room for manouevre.


I would contend that we won't actually know what level of debt this
Government has built up and is continuing to build up (Quote Dianne
Abbott on This Week when asked whether the Government will cut back on
spending or borrow, "Oh borrow, of course, we are a deeply unpopular
Government with only two years to go before an election, course we'll
borrow.") until either they're forced to go to the IMF or the other
lot get in (and they’ll probably lie as well).