To think that the Chagos deal is incredibly stupid and harmful?

[Sausagenbacon]

Let's hand millions over to Mauritius (which never had a legal right to the islands).
I honestly think that Starmer is stupid not to see how the optics of this play out.

Well Tice and Farage are spouting off about the deal and making ridiculous theatre out of it. Are we not allowed to mention that? Why?

How could the UK ever accuse another country of breaking international law if it itself ignored the International Court of Justice’s ruling and the UN’s mandate?

I'm trying to help you

Seriously, try to get out of your bubble, read more widely, develop a healthy cynicism and questioning attitude.

Don't just parrot what you're told, if one group says x is brilliant, and another says it's terrible, try to find sources not aligned with either group and form your own opinion.

The amount of political manipulation online is massive. It's important that people can form genuinely well informed opinions

It all seems very remote and marginal - the base will continue for the next 100 years, by which time we’ll all be long gone.

Yes there is a cost, but there was also a cost in defending ongoing claims from Mauritius, which would have undermined day to day operations.

Another great example of Reform and others whipping up nationalism on complex issues for political gain.

The voting suggests more think yanbu

It's billions over all, although maybe you meant millions a year.

I’m probably one of the few people on MN who has been (briefly) to Diego Garcia. It’s not ours. We have to hand it back. But we want to keep the base. Which we will need to rent.

I am shocked that so many are still defending Empire style colonialism.

Well done to the Mauritians for seeing this through.

A few British people seem to still have the colonial mindset about a little Island getting upstart aspirations but from the Mauritians I know, they are a smart and tenacious country and deserve this victory.

No it wasn’t. Literally no one other than Mauritius cared.

The islands were never part of Mauritius. The islands are nowhere near Mauritius. The actual native inhabitants - the Chagossians - don’t want to be part of Mauritius. Mauritius is as much a colonial presence as we were.

I think it is a difficult situation, but has been handled fairly well.

UK can't complain about other countries ignoring international law if we did the same.

From my very uninformed view the cost of the lease appears to be worth it, considering the strategic importance. Would you really say no to increasing the Defence budget by 0.02%, to gain the intelligence and therefor security that this base apparently brings?

Yes this confirms what I heard on the radio yesterday. There was a woman being interviewed and she was protesting because she considered herself British and had no affiliation to Mauritius. To say she was disappointed with the judgement is an understatement.

Those are the people inhabiting the islands so were their views even considered?….. Surely their voices should be heard above everything else!

I'm referring to the current migration wave to the UK. Which they are wholly entitled to do, given what the UK did to them, but it's a huge logistical problem.

But why the Mauritians? If you don’t approve of colonial hangovers (fair enough) and believe in the rights of all peoples to self determination on their own land (fair enough), and believe the UK needs to right a great wrong to those dispossessed then surely Chagos belongs to the Chagossians, not to Mauritius.

Mauritius has never had sovereignty over Chagos and they were only governed from there under an imposed colonial structure.

Some Chagossians support this move and many oppose it. If this is about principle, why not grant them sovereignty instead of handing it to a third party?

The law ruling was advisory only. We had no reason to follow it. The judges who ruled were Russian and Chinese and benefit a lot from Mauritius (a China ally) being in charge of a strategically important site

people saying ‘the tories started negotiations’ - yes they did, until they realised it was utter madness and cancelled the whole thing. Labour didn’t need to do it, except the negotiator is Starmer’s best friend

I voted Labour but this is it for me. Such a destructive act against the best security interests of the country. The French wouldn’t do this in a million years. I’m voting anyone but Labour now

You do realise that these islands were stolen from Mauritius in the first place, as a result of colonisation? To say that we have any legal right to them is 1) factually incorrect and 2) effectively promoting white supremacy. Educate yourself.

To add - Rayner now wants to cut child benefit from those earning over £50k, in order to give £9 billion to Mauritius for this outrageous deal. Any time they want to raise taxes or say there’s no money left, remember they found money for this.

The chagossians don't inhabit the islands. They were illegally displaced from the islands in the 70s and dumped in Mauritius and the Seychelles. The uk government lied about the settled status of the communities who lived there to do a deal with the US for Diego Garcia. The chagossians are all entitled to British citizenship now as reparations but the uk government still won't allow them to return to any of the Chagos islands because of the military base. I doubt the Mauritius government will either.

The actual Chagossians want the islands to remain British! Rather than be handed over to another coloniser, one who is corrupt and harsh on the inhabitants and in the pocket of China.

The islands were a colonial stronghold and never inhabited by Mauritians as far as I am aware. The chagossians are descended from enslaved people who were transported to work on plantations. The islands are nowhere near Mauritius really. I admit I don't know much about the history of the islands pre British colonial rule but I don't think this is a 'just' decision, just a politically loaded ones

The judges who ruled were Russian and Chinese

You can back that statement up?

It's not really a British base on the Chagos, it's an American one, which they kindly agree the use of by the UK...

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/11/chagos-case-judge-china-official-backed-russian-in-ukraine/

That is a fair point. Has anyone asked the Chagossians what they prefer

Exactly. Absolutely ridiculous to say they can’t be mentioned