Fraudulent indeed, Richard, as Jan's link shows.
One example:
Gov. borrows money by selling bonds, pays 5% interest a year, can't pay the borrowed money back, so keeps selling more bonds at an ever increasing rate.
Result, Public Debt May 2010 around £750 billion, May 2013 around £1 trillion+, and interest owed each year on the Public Debt currently at around £50 billion.
Conclusion: Gov. cannot afford to repay even the interest on the Public Debt, let alone the Debt, and must borrow more, and more, and MORE .... and increase taxes, and cut spending.... and the Debt just gets BIGGER all the time.
Greetings from Clown Osborne

AUSTERITY
(bee hee: "we're all in it together")