When you claim a land 8000 miles away from your capital, to my mind your claim is on shaky ground not that it ever stopped the British empire in it's pomp. India? Kenya? New Zealand? All part of Britain old boy.
Now it seems that the British and the Argentinians are arguing over the Falkland Islands again with the tabloids getting so excited by the prospect of a re-run of the 1982 Falklands conflict between us, that they have taken to comparing the military capabilities of us both and drafting in military experts to dissect how they think any conflict will pan out. God Save the Queen and a resounding spanking for the Argies of course.
As long as i can remember, the Falklands has been a source of irritation between Britain and the Argentinians with the Buenos Aires Government regularly bringing up the subject in the United Nations to negotiate the sovereignty issue which Britain stonewall despite UN Resolutions that compel Downing Street to chat things over.
So why is Britain so keen to keep a tiny island of the coast of South America? Give yourself half a point if you said the estimated 60bn barrels of oil in the seas around the Islands.
Britain is due to start drilling and the Argentinian Government declared that it was taking control of all shipping between its coastline and the disputed islands, and duly detained a supply ship which was transporting pipes to the islands from an Argentinian port.
Not that the 60bn barrels is the main reason for Britain's wish to keep the Union Flag fying in the Falklands, the big prize is the 386,000 square miles of Antarctic seabed that we can claim because of our sovereign rights of a small part of that particular geographical shelf. Virgin Antarctic seabed just ripe for oil and gas exploration.
The Government will make a big play of the 170 plus years of British history on the Island and the 255 who died in the 1982 war but if this current disagreement escalates, it will be as much about doing the right thing for the Islanders as Iraq was about weapons of mass destruction.
4 comments:
What does the government of Argentina want? Do they want the UK to just pack up and leave, giving it to them? Looking at the history of the place, the UK claim to the Falklands is rock solid.
-Nog
While I totally agree with your last sentence, Lucy, and realise that no party's incentive for wanting sovereignty over the islands is due to benevolent reasons, the 70% of islanders who are of British descent won't really care about the motivation of those in Westminster who want them to stay 'British', just so long as they do.
I think that is exactly what Argentina want Nog, but was unlikely to happen and certainly won't now.
I agree with the part about the islanders just wanting to stay British Cheezy, and as long as they do then we are obliged to protect them but i hate the tabloid attitude that this is the main reason and the oil there, when mentioned, is just a happy perk of holding onto the islands.
Don't forget anon that we have teamed up ith the French now so you will feel the full force of whatever ships we have left and the best France has to offer. Hmm, I might need to rethink that.
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