Falkland Islands

[lumos2000]

30 years ago argentina was a military dictatorship, its now a democracy. you can negotiate with a democracy but we seem to be giving to old stiff upper lip, had the argentinas been propely equiped 30 years ago we probley would have lost the islands anyway.

 

[Ernie]

See for me its that old sticking point of self determination, Britain has perhaps the most legitimate claim also to the island , having discovered and colonised it first. argentina themselves dont use the proximity argument as the major point in their claim for sovereignty, is that it was left to them by spain.

The islanders see themselves as british, they have a culture and community and way of life.

Dont get me wrong the motivation of the government is purely oil and fish, they would sell out the islanders at the drop of the hat for the right offer.

but i think morally and ethically while people there see themselves as british and wish to remain british they should be afforded all of the rights and protections of british citizens.

While i have little time for governments and their interest in wars in countries that dont concern them, i have all the time in the world for our armed forces. The fact that british lads gave their lives defending the islands should not be forgotten, it would be an insult to simply hand over the islands now, while nothing has changed in regards to britains reasons for going to war in the first place if you know whqt i mean.

You've not written anything there I disagree with - I have mixed feelings over it all.

I think my main point is this - we went to war a little over 30 years ago, for these islands, and if that still has the possibility of rearing it's head again, then we've done a piss-poor job of either mitigating it, or making the situation more palatable to all. Because if it's going to come up, time and time again, as brinksmanship or worse, then it should be telling us something - and in fairness, the islanders, too - either it needs to be resolved better, or some change needs to happen.

Who's to say - but one day we might lose.

Alot of very good "arguable"points of view..to be honest neither ourselves or Argentina can afford a conflict...my honest opinion is that its down to money and revenue..fish and minerals...thats it plain and simple...i think that negotiatons should take place not on sovereignty{it should stay British}...but working together on revenue which could be raised This would help both U.K. and Argentina economies...again the deal would have to be thrashed out...75/25 split in U.K.'s favour or something along those lines.

Ernie

 

[greenstiles]

I think they were offered 50/50years ago, but that was the dictator president that wasn't interested..........perhaps they should try again.

 

[velomaniac]

As Greenstiles points out above, once the Argentinians have negotiated with us they then need to negotiate with Spain who we nicked the islands from. The Falklands/Malvenas have never belonged to Argentina which did not exist at the time Spain or us took control.
The indigenous population of South American indians the Spanish settlers chucked out have more right to the Falkland islands.
Facts are we control them, the population believe themselves to be British and anyone who tries to use force to take them off us better come more tooled up than they did last time because with recent wars the UK armed forces are pretty darned experienced !

 

[Signal11th]

As Greenstiles points out above, once the Argentinians have negotiated with us they then need to negotiate with Spain who we nicked the islands from. The Falklands/Malvenas have never belonged to Argentina which did not exist at the time Spain or us took control.
The indigenous population of South American indians the Spanish settlers chucked out have more right to the Falkland islands.
Facts are we control them, the population believe themselves to be British and anyone who tries to use force to take them off us better come more tooled up than they did last time because with recent wars the UK armed forces are pretty darned experienced !

With you on that apart from we really didn't nick them from Spain.

As far as I'm concerned they are British (makes no difference where they are in the world) they want to stay British if you want to feed them to the dogs to save 3 billion a year(which will be wasted on benefits or some quango) well shame on you.

To me there is no difference from any Scottish Island, Isle of Wight, Jersey etc. Right to self-determation is paramount.

 

[dyna-ti]

There was some kind of argument from them about the Falklands sitting on the Argentine continental shelf.
Seeing as Uruguay and Chile and i suppose the other countries of South America are also part of this shelf,does that mean Argentinian has a claim to them too ?

apparanty the population is just over 3000, the war cost us £3bn not counting the lives lost, it would have been cheeper to resetle the population in the uk with with £1m each.

if the islanders want to be british what are they doing living on a rock in the middle of the south Atlantic?

They are there because they are living there and have been there since about 1830
Where do you live? how long have you lived there?
Remember that big war about 70yrs ago? might have heard of the reasons for it :?

 

[makster]

After this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZhBCqh8l8 no chance!!

 

[tintin40]

had the argentinas been propely equiped 30 years ago we probley would have lost the islands anyway.

True. They certainly rode their luck.
Also our army wanted to be there. Their army was boys who didn't want to be there once the fighting started.

 

[dyna-ti]

had the argentinas been propely equiped 30 years ago we probley would have lost the islands anyway.

True. They certainly rode their luck.
Also our army wanted to be there. Their army was boys who didn't want to be there once the fighting started.

Different when youre up against highly trained troops and not civilians as in Operation Condor.[approx 30,000 murdered]

 

[Grannygrinder]

.

How gutted would you be as a UK serviceman to have fought tooth and nail to keep them for/within the UK only to have them given to the Argies anyway :x
I think there should/will be a referendum put to the inhabitants of the Falklands to find out their views and the results should be enforced regardless.
Most of the other colonies we've given back have wanted independence this is not the case with the Falklands