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.

9 judges, 1 is Chinese, none is Russian

Indeed. Absolute arrogance on show here on this thread .

This is why they need to teach more about the ills of imperialism - including the British empire more in school. There is a lack of education on this.

and no it’s not about making British people feeling “guilty” (the arrogance shows they’re clearly not) but it’s about helping people to learn from past mistakes and do better for the future.

A guarantee for a military base for a long time at Diego Garcia seems a sensible deal to me. You might argue about the payment amounts, though from the Tories with the PPE scandal that is a bit rich.

Stolen from Mauritius is a strange way to see it. Chagos and Mauritius are both products of colonisation, not being inhabited before then. The two peoples have lots of links but also lots of differences (including ethnicity and religion). Chagossian views on sovereignty are mixed but many feel completely shut out of this deal.

If Britain had kept Pakistan at independence and was now relinquishing it, should it go to India or should there be self-determination?

You clearly have not educated yourself judging by your posts.

Mauritius is also largely made up people who were brought to the island as 'indentured servants' which is akin to slavery, so where is the distinction between the inhabitants of Mauritius and inhabitants of Chagos? Also - it is a fallacy to make claim that the Chagos Archipelago is nowhere near Mauritius because 1) it is, and 2) it is certainly many hundreds of thousands of miles closer than the UK to Mauritius.

“Brexit dropped from the heavens, quite frankly,” Philippe Sands, a legal adviser to Mauritius in the Chagos case, told POLITICO. “There is no question that, but for Brexit and Boris Johnson, the resolution would have had less chance of reaching the General Assembly, or being adopted with such a large majority.”

You can tell whose algorithm has been infected by Reform propaganda, can't you.

@Sausagenbacon Internstional law is not with the status quo on this one. It’s not the Tories. It’s all governments since the 1960s. Going back to at least Wilson. We need some resolution and of course some people are not happy. If Obama had been in power we might think differently. Somewhere so far away is never in anyone’s mind until there’s an issue. It’s the way it is. Labour could have stopped the deal but we needed a lawful resolution to the issue.

That poster should "stay away" from the thread because they don't agree with you? They're right it is just the Reform way, lifted from MAGA bombard the media (social media) with negative press and moaning about the government, find good in nothing. This kind of behaviour should serve as a warning to those thinking of biting for Reform, they don't have any substantial policies of their own, just rubbish everything and everyone!

Isn’t that a bit of a colonialist mindset itself though? These peoples came from different places (mainly African vs mainly Indian) and settled in places as far apart as London and Tripoli, but because they were all indentured servants they are the same people?

The thing that links them is the colonial rule. That’s what the Mauritius legal case rests on: a convention that the colonial structure should be preserved.

Oh the irony 🥱

We cannot repatriate these people though can we? Where they came from is now largely irrelevant and they cannot go “home” in any meaningful way. We are not meeting legal obligations if we don’t sort it out, so we have.

we have travelled there several times. The chagosian people live there in absolutely poverty, in shanty towns. Heartbreaking, we have finally done the correct thing.

They should have never been removed from their home

Why don’t the people of Chagos get a say on their own status?

If it’s not wanted then surely they should have a voice in this.

I see your point. However, I was not endeavouring to categorise them as one homogenous group, rather, I was responding to the poster who said

"The chagossians are descended from enslaved people who were transported to work on plantations. The islands are nowhere near Mauritius really."

in order to show that Mauritius was also governed in this way and its people were indentured servants too so they were not any better or worse off than the people of Chagos. And yes, the thing that links them is colonial rule.

The Tories started the negotiations then didn't proceed with the batsht bonkers deal. Starmer did proceed however!
I think you will see many more of these threads as everything Labour do is bonkers to most people. I mean they voted to kill 4000 pensioners (their own numbers), put up taxes on businesses to lose jobs, now this bonkers deal. Yes expect many more such threads as just when you think this lot couldn't get worse they do.

Because colonialism continues in 2025

Well Starmer rightly or wrongly is even more of a popular hate figure. Nige more of a hero to many, rightly or wrongly. Why create yet another uninformed thread designed to stir things up ?

How many did the Tories kill ? At least labour are reconsidering the WFA which should still be means tested btw.

I don't know, can you advise, I'd be interested? The point being Labour deliberately chose to vote for a WFA cut they knew would kill 4000.

Likewise they created a dodgy dossier to kill 500,000 (sadly I voted for them back then so am partly guilty, but have learnt my lesson, but they are sti;ll at it killing people on purpose and by their own numbers. Why do people still vote for them with that record?)

I don't agree at all with how Labour handled the WFA but

The point being Labour deliberately chose to vote for a WFA cut they knew would kill 4000

Is hyperbole. The actual facts are that research in 2017 suggested that means testing the WFA could contribute to 4000 deaths.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/05/tory-winter-fuel-allowance-cuts-puts-4000-lives-at-risk-claims-labour

Honestly, at this point I wish Starmer would call a snap GE, just to stop the endless carping.

Let's get a Reform government in and see how we all fare. I am sure it will be all sunlit uplands and unicorns.

Philippe Sands who is well known to be a close personal friend to Keir Starmer. That Philippe Sands?

You may be right. It seems off that in a rush to say we should not be there the actual people who live there and clearly have a pov, given protests and appeal to court, have no say at all.

And? Sands has been counsel to Mauritius for a decade and a half. Should he have stepped down from the post when Starmer became PM?