Should remain British
Should be Argentinian
Hold a referendum
NMP
Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands?
In light of the recent resurgence in interest by Argentina about regaining sovereignty over the Falkland/Malvinas islands, in a time when the current young generation have little knowledge of the Falklands conflict; should the islands remain British?
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Originally Posted by Blitzen
I think this is a political smokescreen. Argentina's got domestic issues - let's rally nationalism.
Apparently, the Argies don't have as much claim on it as they say. They had a garrison there for a few years, but the British took over when there was a mutiny and they killed their head honcho. The British had had sovereignty previously, before handing it over to the Spanish Argentinians. The proximity thing doesn't work either. Argentina may be the closest country, but it's still over a thousand miles away. I don't know why they would want ownership of a barren scrap of land peopled only by 'British' humans and sheep. Other than oil, but wasn't there a pact to share oil revenues, should any arise?
Cameron has this one right, I think (shock, horror!).
If all the people currently living there wish to remain British and have done so for some time, I don't see any reason to hand the territory to the Argentinians. Holding a referendum is nice but by all accounts the outcome is already obvious, and if they held one, would the Argentinians honour it? It's nationalism as Smudger said.
Gibraltar is another example of this.
No trees were harmed in the creation of this message. However, many electrons were displaced and terribly inconvenienced.
As Galant has already said, I'd say hold a referendum but it would be pointless as it's pretty well publicised that the islanders want to remain British. And it does all smack of just posturing / distraction from other more immediate issues (on both sides).
They are holding a referendum, but as with all referendums this is because they are already pretty sure of the outcome of the vote.
Argentina has no valid claim.
Those living on the island have already said they want to remain British, so for me its a none issue.
It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...
Article 1 from the UN Charter.
"2.To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;"
(my bolding)
Strange that whasserface quotes that the UK is in breach of the UN charter when the people who live there wish to determine their own future.
Society's to blame,
Or possibly Atari.
Wouldn't have anything to do with the recent oil exploration now would it...
It the people want to remain British then that's what they should have.
I agree with options 1 and 4, and kind-of with option 3.
As I understand it, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that a referendum of the residents would vote "stay British". So I'm not sure holding one is worth the bother. But .... there are a couple of arguments in favour of doing so :-
1) Small place, small population, so cost would be trivial.
2) A "stay British" vote, assuming that's what happens, justifies the argument for telling Argentina to $×#@ off.
3) If there were to be a shock result and they voted to go Argentinian, then that's their right and frankly, it wouldn't bother me. And the UK wouldn't have to spend a fortune maintaining a decent defence capability down there, to stop Argentina doing again what they tried to do once before, and that we ended up paying a very large price in blood and treasure (especially the blood) to put right.
Ultimately, I don't care if the Falklands are British or Argentinian, but I DO care that the Islanders get their wishes on the matter consulted, respected honoured and followed. Whatever they want is what should happen.
Didn't some very brave men fight to keep them British in 1982?
The 82 invasion was smokescreen to make the Argentinian people feel better about/forget their national problems, and now the same is happening again.
Agree.
□ΞVΞ□
The referendum , this time , is being done in full accordance with article 1514 - so the brits can wave it at the UN and say ` they voted to stay british as per your rules`
as said before - its all hot air , the military don't want to fight , and the president , with waning popularity and mounting domestic issues is beating a drum
the general belgrano is another point - the Armada de la República Argentina has said many times - the sinking was valid ` war combat` as the ship was under orders to locate and attack the Royal Navy with all available weapons ; its just they had no subs and a nuke boat got to the cruiser first; the mission was a success - the ARA carrier (Veinticinco de Mayo) was forced to return home after just 1 abortive attack on the RN fleet , totally due to the RN nuke boats.
yet madam president is banging on about `war crimes` years later.
I think this sums it up quite well...
http://www.fleetstreetfox.com/2013/0...argentina.html
I'm a big believer in the old addage, "the only true sovereign is the people". If they wish to remain British then I'm in favour whatever measures are necessary to protect their democratic right of self determination, including military force. Equally so if they decided they wanted to be Argentinian, but they don't. I'm actually in favour of the referendum, even though I'm sure it's a foregone conclusion just as a matter of them putting pen to paper, as it were.
Frankly I think Cameron falls asleep at night dreaming of an Argentine attack, about the only chance he has of winning the next election I think, but they don't have the men or material to even try.
Argentina has absolutely no valid claim to the islands, regardless of the islanders living there.
Point to the part of the above chart that says Argentina has a valid claim.
The trivial cost of the islands isn't so, it's takes up a large chunk of the defence budget but this isn't normally declared. Excluding that then the islands make more money than they recieve I believe.
Their accents are also really unusual and there don't seem to be any trees, plus it's damned cold. However it's a vital stopping point not for oil etc but to help us maintain our Antarctic claim. If this oil is found and a way to extract it is agreed things may get interesting!
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