Why you shouldn't believe Brown on the economy?... Read his lips!

Let's play a game. It's called spot the anomalies.

"borrowing for this year and future years is therefore £27 billion (2003), £24 billion (2004), £23 billion (2005), £22 billion (2006) and £22 billion (2007)." Budget 2003

"borrowing for this year will fall to £34 billions (2004) and in future years fall further to £33 billions (2005), falling again to £29 billions (2006), then falling to £28 billions (2007), £24 billions (2008) and £22 billions (2009). Budget 2004

"[it] will be £34bn (2005) this year falling to £32bn (2006) next year, then falling again to £29bn (2007), falling to £27bn (2008), then to £24bn (2009) and then £22bn (2010)." Budget 2005

"[borrowing] will be £37bn this year, £36bn next year, then £30bn, falling to £25bn, £24bn and £23bn in 2010-11" Budget 2006

"the figure for [borrowing] this and future years will be £35 billion (2007) - over 1 billion less than forecast at the Pre Budget Report - then 34 (2008), 30 (2009), 28 (2010), 26 (2011) and 24 billion (2012)" Budget 2007

See that? £10bn leap in the first to second of the predictions, and then he is out by x billion each year except for one where his incorrect prediction for the previous year doesn't even manage to cancel out his earlier mistakes.

The man is making it up as he goes along. So the next time you hear him start banging on about debt - even if you accept his figures- you know that that he's been wrong consistently year on year for the past five. Why trust him now?