Gideon the goat (yes, after much infighting we have finally agreed on a name) has already claimed its first political scalp!

Our newest political star had accumulated ten times as many followers as the Treasury’s Spending Challenge site on Facebook by yesterday.

The day ended with Gideon the goat being invited to a special special chat with Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) himself on what to do about unemployment.

Cameron had launched his Spending Review Challenge on Facebook with much fanfare and a video chat with Mark Zuckerberg too.

But after being thoroughly upstaged in just one day, they have now taken down their Facebook page.

Oh dear. Does this government not like competition?

According to prominent left-wing blogs (so it must be true, we don’t spend all our time trying to track down what Gordon Brown is doing) a poll found that the goat had become even more popular than the Libdems!

Gideon’s spokesperson Clifford Singer said: “Vote goat!”

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

2. Stable & Principled

   RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

3. Alison Charlton

   RT @libcon Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP – ha! brilliant.

4. Adam White

   RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP > hahahahahaha!

5. fljf

   RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

6. John West

   RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

7. Derek Bryant

   RT @libcon Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

8. sunny hundal

   This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

9. diana smith

   RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

10. Liam McKee

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

11. gemma tumelty

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

12. Nadia

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

13. diana smith

    @sunny_hundal Oh dear. when I complained shortcuts on consultations my tory MP wrote to shoe me spending challenge http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

14. Kevin Blanchard

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

15. diana smith

    @sunny_hundal Oh dear. when I complained re shortcuts on consultations my tory MP wrote to show me spending challenge http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

16. Abbas Premji

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

17. Mr Omneo

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

18. Steven Gabb

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

19. Javeriah

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

20. Keith Phillip Jones

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

21. Andy Sutherland

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

22. Andy Sutherland

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

23. diana smith

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

24. Other TaxPayers Alli

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

25. Political Penguin

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

26. sianberry

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

27. Mark Martin

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

28. Dave Lewis

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

29. Nigel Stanley

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

30. MyDavidCameron

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

31. Political Scrapbook

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP << VICTORY!

32. Simon

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

33. Gert

    RT @psbook: RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP << VICTORY!

34. The G

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

35. Dave McDougall

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

36. Rachael

    RT @chuzzlit: RT @libcon Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP – ha! brilliant.

37. Dick Mandrake

    Hey, what happened to the Government's Spending Challenge Facebook page? http://bit.ly/cB8h8Y #votegoat

38. Soho Politico

    RT @libcon Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/anGLkZ

39. Annie B

    RT @SohoPolitico: RT @libcon Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/anGLkZ

40. Claire Rose

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

41. piehead

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

42. Lucy Palmer

    RT @SohoPolitico: RT @libcon Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/anGLkZ

43. James Asser

    RT @NigelStanley: RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

44. Josh Eades

    RT @JamesAsser: RT @NigelStanley: RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

45. Mind In Flux

    RT @JamesAsser: RT @NigelStanley: RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

46. Simon

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

47. David Ritter

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

48. neilrfoster

    RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

49. Michael Hanley

    RT @sunny_hundal This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

50. Steve Walker

    In the battle of new media and government, the goat wins! http://bit.ly/9l32UC

51. Tom Marley

    RT @Conorpope: RT @sunny_hundal: This is delicious: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

52. Teresa

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat http://bit.ly/aWxrTP

53. Lauren G

    Uh, whoops. Correction: They named the goat 'Gideon'. http://is.gd/dEYWF #bestnewsallweekend

54. Sion

    Treasury Spending Challenge FB page deleted after Gideon the #votegoat gets 10 times as many followers http://s.coop/1uq

55. Hot About Obama

    Obama's Treasury Secretary: Economy is 'gradually getting better' – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency http://shrten.com/44oa

56. blogs of the world

    RT @libcon: Treasury deletes Spending Challenge page after being upstaged by #votegoat htt… http://reduce.li/z2rugy #deletes

57. Stephen and Therese's voyage through the rat race · Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-26

    [...] yes … http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/07/24/treasury-deletes-spending-challenge-page-after-being-upstage... [...]

58. Facebook goat makes appearance in Sunday Times | Political Scrapbook

    [...] had great fun gloating over the total failure (and subsequent deletion) of the government’s Spending Challenge Facebook page. Scrapbook was thus thrilled to see [...]

59. Robin Hood Tax – the Saving Challenge « A Thousand Cuts

    [...] the wake of the government’s calamitous Spending Challenge, the Robin Hood Tax campaign has launched its own ‘Saving Challenge’ to [...]

60. Spending Challenge is back! Time to hijack it? | Liberal Conspiracy

    [...] Then his Spending Challenge Facebook page – announced via a much-trailed web conference between David Cameron and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – was deleted after it was beaten by a goat. [...]

61. Political Scrapbook

    @jamesro47 Read your piece on e-petitions. The Treasury FB page you mention was closed after flopping completely http://bit.ly/9l32UC