Never has so much been owed by so many

I use this Churchillian quote as, so we are told, the UK is in more debt than at any time since the end of WW2. The full quote goes, I understand, "Never has so much been owed by so many to so few". I did not use the full quote in my heading as, in the UK situation, I have no idea just who we owe all this money to, and I would welcome a little more understanding on this. From reading the headlines one would imagine that the banks lent money to people who had no means to pay it back and the UK Government printed some more money to give to the banks to make up their shortfall. If it was that simple then one would have imagined that the Government would have asked the bank to sign an IOU so that we might be able to get our cash back, or at least expect the banks to hand over the keys of all of the houses they were going to repossess as a result of the recession. But whatever the problem and extent of the debt the new Government has told us that we have all got to tighten the trouser belt over the next few years to pay off the debt. It is at this stage that the WW2 analogy comes in. During the second world war the Government appealed to the general public to muck in and help build spitfires, bombers or whatever our troops needed. It is said that in response to these appeals, aluminium saucepans where handed to the rag and bone-man and iron railings were taken down and handed over to the scrap yard. Whether in the back street of suburbia or the large estates in the Shires, both simple and elaborate cast iron fencing was taken down, to support the war effort, showing "we were all in it together". But, surprisingly, when the war was over, and after a decent spell of time, the fences to great houses appeared again, apparently having been hidden away in barns and outhouses. And if you do pay your fiver to visit a stately home these days, you will be proudly shown the Victorian kitchen, with all its cast iron saucepans, galvanised baths and copper boilers brightly polished and intact. I mention this only to make it clear that whatever the Government considers is necessary to clear the country's debts, it should apply across the board and that the rich should pay their fair share