National debt counter launched on conservatives.com

Click here to get depressed.

Comments

[GB£.com]

Excellent, but it would be significantly more potent if it also included the debt per person, as such a big number is meaningless to many people.

[Stop_Common_Purpose]

Some people in America are trying to set up a "sound money" financial sysyem:

http://www.opencurrency.com

and

http://freelakotabank.com

[Cleethorpes Rock]

They could do a range of counters, incuding the debt per person. Excellent stuff though.

How about our IT geeks at CCHQ getting this made into a Facebook application so we can get it going viral?

Maybe the TPA could do a version which they would then be allowed to put up on websites as advertising, without falling foul of party political advertising rules?

[ak23566]

Any chance of the code so we can put it onto Association websites and blogs ?

[expatinsingapore]

Of course the Singapore government's response (and remember: because of fiscal discipline the Singapore government has accumulated massive surpluses in the boom times, Singapore has minimal taxes, and massive investments in infrastructure, health care, education, and quality of life projects) to the global economic crisis is to cut the pay of senior civil servants and politicians.

Meanwhile in Singapore, the government- which has announced a stimulus plan based on subsidies for increasing training by the labor force- which will be paid for by tapping into the surpluses run up during the fat years- announced today a reduction in the pay of top civil servants and politicians to reflect the economic downturn. Basically when the economy is hot, they get higher pay and bonuses, when it's not, they get lower pay.

Read it and weep.

http://www.straitstimes.com:80/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_306495.html

Why can't the UK do this? Why can't the Conservatives if they are too afraid to talk about cutting the public sector at least advocate REDUCING the salaries of top civil servants and politicians! This would be hugely popular and the right thing to do.

What are the tories afraid of? Are they afraid of being so effective, like the PAP that they stay in power for more than fifty years?

[Dorian the Englandism]

Why's Darling carrying a violin case? Is it to give him something to do while the City burns?

[Dorian the Englandism]

Meanwhile, over on AOL they are having a vote:

Can the VAT cut save your Christmas?

The results so far...
Votes & Per cent
Yes - I'm going to spend
114 10%
No - Christmas is cancelled
1,023 90%

Total votes: 1,139

Way to go, monobrow.

[Norm Brainer]

Any chance of the code so we can put it onto Association websites and blogs ?

I've tried to work out how to leech the script for use on other sites, but looks to have something badly coded in there to grab the number - it doesn't even work if you go to conservatives.com instead of www.conservatives.com

[Norm Brainer]

further to my last comment, I think they are missing a trick with these things.

The bomb thing over the weekend would have been great on blogs and facebook fan pages etc, but I looked on conservatives.com and there was no banner image and code that people can use on their pages - it looked like conservativehome here were left to just make a screenshot.
Same as above, for such things they should have simple code to embed on people's pages (not the odd javascript code they are using) and then a banner image and link for those that can't embed flash.

Without that, yes, it's going to be a good thing but nobody but conservative supporters will see it, so a waste of time.

[TomTom]

Remember War Debt issued to a British public in The First World War at 5% subsequently reduced to 3.5% by Chancellor Neville Chamberlain in 1932...

Undated gilts

There are currently eight undated gilts in issue. These are the oldest remaining gilts in issue, some dating back to the nineteenth century. The redemption of these bonds is at the discretion of the Government, but because of their age, they all have low coupons and so there is little current incentive for the Government to redeem them. Most undated gilts pay interest twice a year; however some pay interest four times a year.

The redemption of undated gilts is subject to certain conditions being met, which vary between the different gilts. For example, some require not less than three months' notice in the London Gazette (e.g. 2½% Annuities), some not less than one month's notice (e.g. 3½% War Loan) whilst others can only be redeemed on an interest payment date (e.g. 4% Consolidated Loan). With the exception of 3½% War Loan (which has £1.9 billion in issue) all undated gilts are “rumps”.

[Teck]

Working people of all ages, especially the young ones, need to know the extent of their INDIVIDUAL and PERSONAL burden that has been created by mismanagement EVEN before the financial crisis and now WORSENED by the truly astronomical debt planned by Labour.

The concept of “national debt” is too remote for the public to shift them into a serious contemplative mode. However, they now need to know what the Conservatives are going to do about it. Our message must be clear yet concise and the policy realistic, practical and positive.

We must do that NOW ahead of an early General Election, and repeat the message often to alert the public.

[Prodicus]

Any geeks at CCHQ are on a hiding to nothing. The webmasters even refuse to put up a PayPal link for small personal donations. (I keep asking.) The design generally is appallingly, erm, conservative. They haven't a clue. They should have a Gadgets page for supporters to viralise (is that a word? Oh God, I wish I hadn't typed that) all campaign materials. Not a clue.

[Steve Tierney]

I also tried to nick the code to get the debt counter from conservatives.com onto my sites, and also couldn't achieve it.

Crazy really. We have thousands of websites out there and all of us web guys would love the code to spread the word.

The webmaster at the Conservatives website needs a pay reduction!

[pp]

Err... with vista, ie7 and the latest flash I just get a message 'flash 6 or later required...'.

What does it do when it works?

[Man in a Shed]

They should run this on some of the new electronic advertising screens on the underground.

[Steve Tierney]

SOLUTION!

Webmasters, here's a way to put the debt counter on your site.

http://www.stevetierney.org/debtcounter.txt

The reason I've done this as a link and not as actual code is that ConHome doesn't allow code in messages.

Anyway, go look at that text file (linked above) which shows a quick way to get the counter onto your site. Then just adjust the height and width parameters to suit.

[Rob]

Why don't they make this information really home, by adopting some of the suggestions expressed by other commenters?

- Provide the code so that other web sites can carry this counter!

- Add what this breaks down as per person and/or per family!

- Build an actual national debt clock and place it prominently, a la Times Square: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4910883.ece

[Rob]

That should have said "really hit home", obviously...

[Steve Tierney]

Rob,

>>- Provide the code so that other web sites can carry this counter!<<

I just gave you code to add the counter to other websites!

Its here.
http://www.stevetierney.org/debtcounter.txt

[rugfish]

I doubt "Just leave your money on the counter" will ever have the same meaning when shopping.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

Tim/Jonathan, can conservatives.com be alerted to this please? It sounds like there are lots of people willing to push this if only they can make the code more accessible and turn it into a Facebook application.

The right in Britain is miles ahead on the internet; we need to start honing this medium as a communication and campaign tool well in advance of the next election.

[Tim Montgomerie]

Thanks very much Cleethorpes Rock but I've already contacted CCHQ about the helpful observations made here.

[David Bean]

Good on you, Tim - chalk me up as another happy viral volunteer if and when they get their acts together.

[Norm Brainer]

Thanks Steve... the Iframe method works well enough - I thought it so unlikely to work I didn't try... although would be better if they made it embedable.

@pp.. you will need flash installed. All it is, is the image of that hairy eyebrowed bloke (I forget his name) like the image above and a counter of debt going up... simple but effective.

[Rob]

Thanks Steve - my point was directed at Conservatives.com... they should be doing a lot more to spread awareness of the issues they raise. They could look to Obama's suceessful web campaign for inspiration.

[Techno Mystic]

Thanks Steve - works great.

CCHQ haven't restored the widgets that were lost when they relaunched in September yet.

[Peter Berrow]

The first thing that should be stated is what was the figure of debt under the last government compared to the figure know. With that at least 60% of the government debt has been created under Brown and Darling which makes even Dennis Healey five years look good?