This crisis needs George Osborne to be a statesman

The advantage of talking up the extent of Britain's debt crisis is that it makes it easier politically to push through the cuts the Government insists are vital.

The problem is that there are other audiences for the remarks of the Prime Minister and Chancellor, such as the ratings agencies, and the debt, currency and stock markets.

If too many people take Osborne and Cameron at their word — jeepers, Britain is bust, even the Government says so — it could exacerbate the problem they are trying to solve.

If you arrived to run a struggling public company that was at no risk of going under but had serious structural problems, it might make sense to trash the previous management, to exaggerate the situation in order to get a more realistic share price while not going so far as to cause your own debt to be downgraded.

Running a country is surely different.

Chancellors need to buy themselves — literally and figuratively — as much time as possible to sort out crises, not antagonise markets which are easily spooked.

And the contention that things are even worse than anyone knew isn't really true. The deficit has been tumbling these past few months, down from £178 billion at the peak to an estimated £156 billion now.

That's still a scary number, but it doesn't all have to be paid tomorrow.

Do they like to suggest that it does because it's helpful to their aims, or because they don't understand how debt works?

Moreover, if the Tories fail to get the cuts they say we need in order to avoid oblivion, what then? Panic selling possibly and a refusal by bond investors to buy government gilts.

An alternative approach would be to strike a better balance between politically motivated fear-mongering and the need to persuade the wider world that Britain remains a successful country. "We are in a tight spot," Osborne could say. "But Britain has never defaulted on its debts. It certainly will not on my watch."