A series of links and articles that will provide a background to the economy in 2012.
UK public spending - useful Guardian article can be found here http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/25/uk-public-spending-1963
The level of national debt http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/334/uk-economy/uk-national-debt/
and a very scary graphic http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/02/19/NATIONAL_DEBT.pdf
The tax burden under New Labour http://www.ifs.org.uk/budgets/gb2005/05chap6.pdf
tax receipts since 1997 http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/25/tax-receipts-1963
Rates of income tax: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_structure/table-a2a.pdf
Interest rates since 1997 www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN03731.pdf
Unemployment figures since 1997 http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN02797.pdf
