Obvallated oakus: oppignorating ourselves...

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2.5 trillion. Two point five TRILLION. That is now the UK national debt. No matter that we see chronic wastage everywhere: on Net Zero (Milliband brothers clown show), IT failures, Quantative Easing, Bank bailouts, HS2, Furlough (yes, we won't forget), Track and Trace, (is Hancock in gaol?), more levels of government, more expenses, more overpaid shysters, etc, etc...etc (and NO it has nothing to do with Liz ousted-in-a-soft-coup Truss). [edit: Every WEEK the interest is 100 billion...Every. Week. ] Sorry: Last year debt interest was 100 billion. 

"In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the national debt has increased by more than £20,000."

Or almost 16 million quid per HOUR. The UK debt clock can be see HERE and I recall when it passed one trillion; yes, at 16 minutes past five in the afternoon of 17th Jan 2011 to be exact; how can I be so sure? Because I blogged an update back then. 

The Tax Payer's Alliance have relaunched their "ticking debt clock! 15 years after our original ground breaking campaign publicising the extent of the UK’s national debt." Yippee! 

Searching through the archives it isn't hard to see where the problem began to skyrocket, although to be clear it is decades of red and blue and all governments are to blame. It is just a shame The Guardian have removed all the comments (OK, it is 11 years ago - ahem - but I would have liked to have reread an Old Ows opinion and my 'highly recommended' points: presumably NOT as petty as this: 

"What irritated me was that in the image [...] they had squeezed the picture of [Gordon] Brown far to the left making him appear over only those 'good' years of surplus (which was when, as we all know, he followed Conservative spending plans) and have the picture of Darling spread over most of the Crash Gordon years and we ALL now know, and it isn't hard to see, that Britain's debt soared from 2000 and Brown was to blame. It is petty things like the positioning of the Chancellors' pictures that annoy me (yes, yes, OK, I'm small minded and petty when it comes to Gordon Brown). 

Yes, despite the Conservatives not helping (Blue Labour) I still blame New Labour (Blair, Brown et el...) and you won't change my mind.

Anyway, you may have heard of the Big Mac Index, well the UK national debt (at this moment in time...on no, now it's gone up...and using the World Population Clock) could buy 72 Big Macs, for each and every single living person on the planet...yes, that's the reason for the image above :-)