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No one likes being in debt. The dark cloud of money owed to others has hung over most of us at one time or another, and getting out from under its shadow normally involves discipline, graft and a depressing lack of fun stuff.

But what about when that dark cloud is hanging over a government?

Largely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, its been estimated the UK will have to borrow nearly 300bn this year, a sum so vast its pretty incomprehensible.

And at some point, the government and in turn we will have to pay it back.

Sounds grim do we have any other options?

Unfortunately not. One person who knows quite a bit about the British economy at times of crisis is Lord Alastair Darling , Labour s chancellor during the financial crash of 2008.

We just have to accept this is an extraordinary event weve never seen anything like it before in modern times and its going to take a long time to recover, he told HuffPost UK.

The priority is actually making sure weve got an economy when we come through the other side of it.