UK pays for WWII

[KukriKhan]

Yeah, that was a crazy time in the US, what with McCarthy, the Red Scare, the Rosenbergs, and all. I certainly grew up in those days, absolutely convinced that nuclear armageddon was only days away.

Sorry about that. But hey! We lent you Elvis!

p.s. Since the Dutch are getting interested in New York (New Amsterdam) maybe Brits would be interested in New London

[English assassin]

Bleh. 60 years? That's fast for us. We are still paying out 2.5% pa on consol bonds that we issued to finance the little run in we had with Napoleon 200 years ago. Its cheaper than redeeming them, apparently.

And while we are on the subject, now that even the most paranoid would have to agree that the Napoleonic threat is well and truly over, can we hope for the final abolition of the temporary tax that was also introduced to finance that war, namely income tax? http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/history/taxhis1.htm

I loved this bit

Nicholas Vansittart was Chancellor when Napoleon was defeated. His inclination was to maintain some tax on income, but public sentiment and the opposition were against him. A year after Waterloo, income tax was repealed ‘with a thundering peal of applause’ and Parliament decided that all documents connected with it should be collected, cut into pieces and pulped.

Hurray for parliament. But, Oh, the perfidy:

The critics were frustrated in the destruction of the records, unaware that duplicates had already been sent to the King’s Remembrancer.

That damned remembrancer, eh...

[InsaneApache]

Shame on you EA you know darn well that 'Grumpy' Gordon re~instates it every year with his budget speech.

Anyway they should bring back window tax. That'll sort the beggers out at KPMG. Have you seen their HQ?

[KukriKhan]

That damned remembrancer, eh...

Remembrancer

Fascinating ancient job and ceremony.

During the ceremony, a black and white cloth is spread out — it is from this the name Exchequer derives. In this ceremony, the City of London pays service for two pieces of land: The Moors near Bridgnorth in Shropshire for which the City must pay two knives, one blunt and one sharp; and a forge in Tweezer's Alley, just south of St. Clement's Dane, near the Strand in London, for which the City must pay six horseshoes and 61 nails.

Now of course, I'm inspired to see if the US is still paying "old" debts.

[BDC]

Does this mean we can finally stop owing the USA favours and start acting British again?

I hear Somalia is up for grabs these days.

[English assassin]

Quote:

Remembrancer

Fascinating ancient job and ceremony.

Quote:
During the ceremony, a black and white cloth is spread out — it is from this the name Exchequer derives. In this ceremony, the City of London pays service for two pieces of land: The Moors near Bridgnorth in Shropshire for which the City must pay two knives, one blunt and one sharp; and a forge in Tweezer's Alley, just south of St. Clement's Dane, near the Strand in London, for which the City must pay six horseshoes and 61 nails.

Sometimes I wonder why foreigners all think the British live in some sort of eccentric medieval theme park, and then I see stuff like this, and I think, well, fair enough.

Why, next, we'll be counting all the swans on the Thames and telling the Keeper of the Royal Swans, just so Liz knows how many she's got. http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/w...99/upping.html

[yesdachi]

Are the Americans going to start reciprocating those so-called technology exchange programmes?

Typically when someone is not getting their part of the deal they stop giving theirs, if you wanted your sink fixed you should have stopped paying rent.


I think it is pretty sweet to see a debt paid off, I think it means your buying this round!

[Hosakawa Tito]

I remember the party we had when we made the last mortgage payment.

[Louis VI the Fat]

The UK can be so quaint sometimes. Just imagine these great career opportunities:

Clerk of the Green Cloth
Page of the Backstairs
Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod

Oh, I'd so love to parade around in a scarlet robe with fur facings and an enormous wig on my head and be completely serious about it. Brilliant, got to love the British.

[Spino]

Does this mean we can finally stop owing the USA favours and start acting British again?

I hear Somalia is up for grabs these days.

Looking to revisit those wild and wooly halcyon days of Britannic alpha male dominance? Sounds good to me, at least mainland Europe (especially France) would ease off on their anti-Americanism and revive the previously fashionable trend of despising the English...

As Nappy used to say, "Perfidious Albion!"

[JR-]

If we had forgiven the debt, they might have gotten uppity. It's good we made them pay every penny, with interest. I'm just shocked we didn't jack up our late fees ...

no part of the payment was ever late.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Actually, three payments were deffered.

Well now that we don't owe America anything anymore will you be nice and come back to the fold?

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair MP, for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness. Popular British films such as the Italian Job and the Wicker Man should never be remade.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There are other types of football such as Rugby, Aussie Rules & Gaelic football. However proper football - which will no longer be known as soccer, is the best known, most loved and most popular. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2008.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of North America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. The 4th of July is no longer a public holiday. The 2nd of November will be a new national holiday, but only in Britain. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager . From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From the 10th of November the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you will be permitted to keep calling it until the 1st of April) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

[KukriKhan]

Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

Indeed.

[Pannonian]

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

Divus MarkMcManus. It would be nice if the Yanks also got to see Rab C Nesbitt. Followed by Pobol y Cwm, accompanied by that wonderful tribute to the Welsh language TV channel "S4C makes me want to smoke crack". A singalong to the bestselling Super Furry Animals album "Mwng" to be arranged afterwards. Failing that, try International Velvet.

Deffrwch Cymru cysglyd gwlad y gan,
Dwfn yw'r gwendid bychan yw y fflam
creulon yw'r cynhaeaf, ond per yw'r don
daw alaw'r alarch unig yn fy mron

Gwledd o fedd gynhyrfodd Cymraes swil
Pan darganfyddais gwir paradwys Rhyl

[Kralizec]

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

.............

I remember that, funny stuff. I received a variation of that email during the 2000 recount episode, and the actual quote there was "your failure to elect a president" (at all)
Also "missing" from your version:

7. You should declare war on Quebec and France, using nuclear weapons if they give you any merde. The 97.85% of you who were not aware that there is a world outside your borders should count yourselves lucky. The Russians have never been the bad guys. "Merde" is French for "****". You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

No offense intended, I just thought it was to funny to be left out

Anyway, the USA response:

The Supreme Court of Florida has instructed me to post the following to ensure strict balance in these turbulent times.

DECLARATION OF ANNEXING THE BRITISH ISLES AS PART OF THE USA
To the imperialist British colonizers.

In the light of your indecision over joining a common European Currency, your dissatisfaction with the European Union, your bickering with European Governments and the fact that you already almost speak our language and refuse to speak any other European languages, you are to be annexed as a State of America. Your state code will be GB. Zip codes will be assigned to replace your old postal districts. The state capital will be Stratford-upon-Avon which is a lot prettier than London. Princess Diana will be declared a saint. You have already assimilated so much American culture that you are unlikely to notice the transition. To aid in the assimilation, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. Look up "aluminum" in any good American Dictionary. Check the spelling and pronunciation guide. We discovered it, we named it, you are mispronouncing it. Learn to live with it. You are, of course welcome to your idiosyncratic and illogical place-names such as Edinburgh, if you wanted it pronounced 'Eddinburra' you have spelled it that way in the first place. You will quit using words such as "fortnight". The correct term is "a two week period". You will learn words such as "credenza", "intern" and "chad".

2. There is no such thing as "UK English". UK English is the relic of a defunct colonialist power which attempted to impose British English linguistic superiority on a nation which has a higher number of English speakers.

3. Your film-makers should learn to distinguish the American and Canadian accents. American accents are not limited to redneck drawls or New York accents. Mainland Americans have more than enough accents to cope with in our own country, so all British dramas will now bear subtitles, especially those made in impenetrable dialects such as Scottish, Scouse or Geordie. To make life easier for mainland America, all British films and TV programs must use American vocabulary and accents; Scotch characters will wear plaid, Irish characters will have shamrocks on them, Welsh characters will not be used since we don't have Welsh Americans, and English characters will wear bowler hats and pinstripes.

4. The British film industry will no longer portray all Americans as cowboys, rednecks, trailer trash or Beverly Hills billionaires. Hollywood will continue to use "Mockney" and "Posh" British accents as this makes it easier for viewers to identify which characters are British. You can have Hugh Grant back. He's a lousy actor and we don't want him either. All British films will be made in Hollywood where the weather and scenery are better. Your film industry is already unable to make a halfway-decent film which doesn't contain a American in the starring role. All American characters should be 'good guys'.

5. You will learn your new national anthem "The Star Spangled Banner". It shall be sung every morning at kindergarten, high school, university and your places of work. Your Union Flag will be hung up any damn way we wish so stop bitching about it being upside down. If there was meant to be a right way up you should have made it simpler. All Union flags will be replaced by the Stars and Stripes over a 12 month period of time.

6. You should stop playing soccer and rugby. There is no need to have two games, one of which is confusingly like Football and one of which is called football but patently isn't real football. If it doesn't require 45 pounds of padding, it isn't football. You should also stop playing cricket. Americans can't understand the rules. If you insist on playing this game which is only played by former British colonies, you will introduce a simplified scoring system, timeouts, colored strips and cheerleaders to make it more interesting. Any match which takes longer than 90 minutes will be declared a draw.

7. In films, as in real life, we decide who the bad guys are. The bad guys are those guys who don't do as we tell them. They are also the guys who attract the biggest audiences into movie theaters. You will cease using the word "cinema". They are "movie theaters". The snippets of forthcoming films are not "trailers" they are "teasers".

8. November 5th is no longer a day for fireworks. July 4th is the appropriate fireworks festival. If you want a big fireworks party on November 5th, we will help you to blow up your Houses of Parliament. You won't be needing them any longer; Disneyland London will be situated there. Hunting with packs of dogs is also banned. Instead, you will go hunting with a pick-up truck, some six-packs of beer, two coonhounds and enough guns and ammo to equip a private militia. There is also no such activity as "caravanning". It is properly called "camping". The thing boy scouts do with tents and bedrolls is called "tenting".

9. Roundabouts will be banned. What is the point of turning left in order to turn right? They are confusing to Americans and are death traps. You will start driving on the right with immediate effect. Most of the world drives on the right already. You will be allowed to turn right on a red light if safe to do so though you must check local county legislation as this is not permitted in all areas.

10. Those things which you call chips are cholesterol-soaked abominations. You will start to eat fries - light fluffy potato in crisp coating. If you want to eat British-style fried potato sticks you will need a certificate from your doctor and good medical insurance. Beer is to be served cold. The warm, flat drink you call beer is properly termed 'ale' and the FDA have determined it to be unfit for human consumption. You will also learn the difference between crackers, cookies and biscuits to avoid causing unnecessary confusion to mainland Americans.

11. All inter-personal communications between family members, even if resident in the same house, must be through a lawyer. It is compulsory to sue somebody at least once per year - be inventive. It is compulsory to have therapy three times each week and to recover false memories of your childhood which allow you to sue your parents and/or your therapist. Therapy will take the place of speaking to family members. You will be given compulsory courses on how to become dysfunctional. Name your children after interesting medical conditions.

12. You will not have guns. In the eyes of Mainland Americans you are wayward children. Children are not permitted to play with firearms unless they have a legitimate reason to do so i.e. they plan to gun down the population of a small town (self-defense) or slaughter every living creature within a mile radius (hunting).

Thank you for your co-operation. You will be assimilated.

Source: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blrevocation4.htm

[JR-]

Actually, three payments were deffered.

as i understand it the repayments started in 1950, and were to consist of 50 repayments, nominally on an annual basis.

the repayment agreement allowed six individual deferments of the annual payments, which the UK took when it considered economically necessary, thus we come to the final payment in the year 2006.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Interesting how the original makes fun of the Americans and the reply makes fun of.... Americans.

PT: So you admit we deffered payments.