It is the month of August, a resort town sits next to the shores of the lake district.  It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a wealthy tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays two £50 notes on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes one of £50 notes and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The Butcher takes the £50 note and runs to pay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the £50 note and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed.

The supplier of feed takes the £50 note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute-that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the £50 note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the room that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the £50 note back on the counter
so that the wealthy tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, takes his money and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the British Government is doing business today.  (They hope)

H/T John The Baker who emailed EnglishGuy@mostlysafeforwork.com with this true story.