UK pays off WWII debt to US

This item has almost no direct local relevance; it’s posted simply because I find it interesting.

The BBC reports that on the last working day of December 2006, Britain paid $83.25m to the United States, the end of 50 payments to settle loans made in 1945 to cover debts on goods and services from WW II. The annual interest rate was 2% – an ongoing gift over the last 60 years.

So that pays off the monetary debt. I believe one reason Tony Blair agreed to join the US in invading Iraq, and one reason the British people supported him in doing so, is because gratitude to the United States for intervening in WWII will remain deep in Britain’s collective unconscious for a long, long time.