"We borrowed to invest ... "

Really?  Will someone ask the next politician who says this how they define 'invest' please?

When I wrote this article about Gordon Brown's record in December 2007, I said that I was unhappy with the use of 'investment' when what is really being described is 'expenditure'. 

The reality is that after 2001, Labour spent and spent even more money that it never raised in tax - and the rate increased in 2007, before the recession hit, and increased exponentially after the recession hit ... it is correcting that excess of expenditure over income that requires the fiscal retrenchment that is going to take place over the rest of this Parliament. 

That politicians want to use language to sell their ideas and policies to people is unsurprising - but the reality is that they often simplify their language to a point where they stretch the words to a breaking point. 

All politicians will do it ... and we need to point out when it happens - so here is a misused and abused word that irritates me a lot at the moment!