ABSTRACT
Government spending and taxation affects every individual. It is not therefore surprising to find that in public finance there are perhaps more attempts made by sectional interests to present biased information than in other economic fields. The definition of government adopted will include local government, but exclude the nationalized industries unless the contrary is stated. The National Debt interest payments show interesting variations. In the 1920s they amounted to well over a quarter of government expenditure, falling in the 1930s after the conversion operations in 1932 and 1934. In view of the current emphasis on crime, it may seem surprising that a smaller proportion was spent on law and order in 1965 than in 1900. Military defence has always occupied a significant slice of expenditure in this period. The importance of social service expenditure from the 1930s now accounts for over 50" of expenditure. Government expenditure has increased since 1900 in money and real terms per head of population.
