Is Government Debt "too high"?

Listen to any Tory (including those Tories that used be known as The Lib Dems) talking about the economy, and they are bound to mention the "horrendous cost of paying off our debt..."..."simply horrendous old boy, never seen anything like it since Lord Poodlebody had to sell of the country pile top pay orff his gaming debts at Boodles...". ... "historic...".

But is it "historic"?

LabourList has a interesting graph showing Debt Interest as a % of Government Spending since 1997/98. 
 

The figures are compiled from the Government's own statistics, from the Red Books for the chosen years. As you can see, debt interest on that calculation was considerably higher in 1997/8, when Labour took over from the Tories, than it is now.

So why the shock-horror? More germeine, why the cut-fast-and-quick strategy of the ToryDems? The debt burden is not "unprecedented", nothing like it. It has been higher for much longer and, more often than not, the Tories were to blame (if blame is he word).....

The cuts are being implemented "fast-and-deep",  not just to pay off the debt, but to to achieve the idealogical aims of the Conservatives: they have always wanted to privatise the NHS and other public services. If they can fool the country that the situation is more desperate than it really is (and it is bad, no doubt about it), they can make their cuts and pretend that, in the immortal words of their patron saint, Margaret Hilda Thatcher, There Is No Alternative....