UK government to pay off £1.9bn First World War debt

International Business Times ^ | December 3, 2014 | Ian Silvera

[C19fan]

The UK government will repay all of the nation's debt from the First World War, George Osborne is expected to announce.

The Chancellor is also expected to say that the government will adopt a strategy to remove the other remaining undated gilts in the portfolio, where it is deemed value for money to do so.

The Treasury will redeem the outstanding £1.9bn ($2.9bn, €2.4bn) of debt from 3½% War Loan on 9 March 2015.

[C19fan]

The article mentions the paying off debt issues related to the South Sea Bubble of the 18th century. These would be consols that paid interest for perpetuity until this redemption. For you Brit Lit fans consols, or called the Funds, were mentioned in the works of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

[ClearCase_guy]

With a little luck, three centuries from now, the media will announce that the deficit created by Obama has been paid off.

[Zhang Fei]

Never sell consols.

[minnesota_bound]

When World War 3 comes around we will tell the British that we would like to help but they still haven’t paid off the debt from World War 2 but if they sign a note with a high interest rate we would gladly defeat the Belgians.

[DJ MacWoW]

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[Shamrock498]

Article says they are refinancing the debt. paying off one credit card with another is not paying off debt. it may be cheaper but it’s not paid off

[CondorFlight]

Grandma always said to hold onto those South Sea Bubble bonds... one day they’d be good...

[cloudmountain]

Grandma always said to hold onto those South Sea Bubble bonds... one day they’d be good...

True, and her great-great-great grandchildren will enjoy the $100.00 they get. With that they can buy a very small candy bar and share it.

[Svartalfiar]

"It is a sign of our fiscal credibility and it's a good deal for this generation of taxpayers...
The government said it will be able to refinance this debt with new bonds benefiting from today's "very low interest rate environment".

Fiscal credibility is refinancing debt you still owe almost 100 years later. Obviously this is a good move to lower interest rate, but still rather ridiculous.

Also, is there anyone familiar with British English on here? Since when does redeem mean to pay something off? Usually it means you give your coupon/debt iou to the person that owes you, and you get the money/reward.

[buckalfa]

However England will never be able to repay the tens of thousands of American lives lost to secure Britain's freedom.

[mabarker1]

Look at your phone bill in detail.

There is a “tax” on it to pay for the War of 1812!

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Britain paid back its world war ii war debt under the Blair administration:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6215847.stm

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Britain paid a higher price in terms of lives than the US from stopping the axis plunging the world into darkness. You are kidding yourself if you think America would have been safe in a world where Fascism was the predominant ideology. You are lucky FDR had the good sense to bring the USA into the war whilst it still had allies to fight alongside and a foothold from which to take the fight to Germany.

[T-Bone Texan]

I was with you until you used “FDR”” and “good sense” together in a sentence.

[HenpeckedCon]

“You are lucky FDR had the good sense to bring the USA into the war whilst it still had allies to fight alongside and a foothold from which to take the fight to Germany.”

FDR did no such thing. Hitler bailed him out by idiotically making his one and only declaration of war in WW2 on the United States. FDR did not ask congress to declare war on Germany on Dec 8, 1941, only Japan.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

He was deliberately provoking Nazi Germany because he wanted to go to war with them. In addition to providing war materials to the allies, he was deploying the USN to escort convoys part of the way, and opening fire on uboats. He was doing everything but actually declaring war because he knew public opinion would not have accepted an offensive declaration of War. Eventually, he got what he wanted, which was direct US involvement in the War.