I think we should give the Falkland Islands back

[Haziedoll]

I don't understand what our claim on the islands is. From what I have read our argument for retaining the islands is that most of the islanders are of British heritage, well they would be wouldn't they considering the islands are so remote.

We gave Hong Kong back so what's the difference with the Falklands?

David Cameron accused Argentina of colonialism, from where I'm sitting it looks as if Britain are guilty of that, holding onto islands for no legitimate reason, guilty of provocation by sending Prince William and a warship out to the area.

Have I missed the point? Why do you think
we should retain the islands?

Perhaps we should give Southern England back to the French
Rubbish - they should give a lot of northern France back to us. Certainly Calais.

And no, if Scotland gets independence they can't have Berwick-on-Tweed, let alone most of the Lake District.

outofbody, we'll have plenty of room, they'll be forced repatriation for all scots.

there'll obviously

Grimma I remain convinced that the recent-ish spate of Brits buying houses in the Dordogne and Aquitaine is a continuation of Agincourt by other means

"Give it back to who exactly??? Who has claim to it?

Besides as someone who has resided at The Falklands I think I can say the Islanders themselves may be a bit pissed off to be sold down the river as they are and see themselves as British and wish to remain so."

Itsallgoing - that's interesting as you have experience of the falklands. I remember way back during the last 'conflict' my parents took my to some holiday camp and we left early because my df went ballistic at some comic who was doing (back then) the usual anti foreigner stuff re the falklands. My dad had lived in argentina and he was offended by the racism. And it was highly shameful (me as a young teen) when we were heckled out of the centre when he objected to the nasty racism.

His view then was that if the falklanders deemed themselves as so british they should live in britain (just like he thought of the british zimbabwe guys). He was also of the view why all this pain for a few 'british people' who are so british they can't live in britain.

This time it feels different - possibly because of the oil - now documents are coming out it seems argentinians on the ground were forced to go and fight for something they couldn't give a shit about and were used. Who knows? I don't.

Who's right and wrong here?

I lived out there for a bit and the uk will never give it back as they want the oil to be ready and also it is costing them a massive amount of uk money to keep it every year so the uk wont ever give it to anyone else imo

Molly - in that case - is it worth our while (and I'm talking about legal claims to the place).

Is the massive UK money about the people or the potential for oil. Was that the case back then?

I think its probably for the oil but I am cynical. When I was out there they said that the oil isnt ready yet so I think they know that one day it will be and dont want to give it away. I also think the Argentians will try and fight for it after we have put the effort in to keeping it going all these years to try and get money from it.

I only went out in 2005 but I just dont see them going to all this effort to protect a small amount of people out there.

Funny how Argentinia describes our posession of the Falklands as outdated Europe colonialism when their own country speaks Spannish because they eradicated the indigenous population when they colonised the country 200 years ago.

Actually I blame the Angles and the Saxons for invading this country and making us invade everyone else. Lets send all the Anglo Saxons back and just give this country back to the Celts. Hang on a moment, didn't they invade from South East Europe. Must be the Frenchies fault, they invaded didn't they or were they actually Normans from Norway.

OK - molly -get your point.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14925620

Articles like this make me think both the uk and argentina know and are both biding their time. From argentinas point of view if the brits do all the ground work setting it up then they could go in and steal it once its all set up?

Then again i dont think argentina would try it as they would know they would lose again. However it wont stop them wanting it.

I have stood at the memorial to the men who died in the sinking of the Belgrano. It is in Ushuaia the Southern most town in Argentina. It was very sad to see the names and I felt it was right to pay our respects and the people of Argentina we met there were very welcoming to us despite the very raw emotions.

It is sad that our two countries who used to have such close trade and diplomatic links (as well as shared cultural and ancestral links) are at odds. I hope we can come to a cooperative agreement win-win on this issue. It is clear the whole is being stirred up by the Argentine President as the country is once again falling into pretty dire economic condition and hence she wishes to divert attention - just as the old Junta did - with a Malvinas spat.

I'm a no, my partner fought in the Faulklands War. it is an outpost, When we arrived there was no Argintina, Just because they got their act together they can't claim it now. It took year to build up a community and economy, it is bristish.

Giveitago, any racism the islanders may or may not suffer from in no way undermines their right to self determination. It's not a conditional right, that people only deserve if they're not horrible. And your dad was totally in the wrong I'm afraid. As the indigenous inhabitants, why should they move anywhere else in order to exercise their fundamental human rights? No country has any right to the islands, other than that given to them by the people.

Well they haven't managed to economically extract oil in the 30 years since the war

I do genuinely believe that it was not conceded by Britain on principle. How can you let a country just decide they "own" another country, we've done it often enough ourselves in the days when it was considered OK for developed countries to do that to lesser developed countries and hopefully we learnt something over time.

So what if its a long way and doesn't have many people. Who decided how far something has to be or how many people it has to have before we decide to defend it from being taken forcably. The only people who should decide are the islanders. We chose to colonise them, we owe them a responsibility as much as any other British citizen until such a time as they choose to self govern or be governed by someone else. Personally in their shoes I'd be petitioning Brunei (or similar) to takeover - pots of money, far enough away not to interfere too much and a fellow oil nation (being as how apparently The Falklands have soooo much oil and all)

To clarify, when I say your dad was in the wrong I don't mean for objecting to racism. I mean for suggesting that the islanders should move to Britain if they wanted to exercise their right to self determination, which is what he was doing.

Well it still looks daft to me. If Argentina had claimed they owned Ireland that would have looked daft as well.

Unless of course the first people to live in Ireland had been Argentine. Then it would make sense, and would be analogous to this situation instead of completely different.

Although saying that, I do think the people should have the right to be part of Argentina if they wish. The fact that the initial inhabitants self defined as British doesn't mean they should be able to bind those following them.

You've got to admit the British had a bit of a nerve really. A few British wandered 8 thousand miles away from home, settled on this Island and claimed it as their own, when Argentina was just a hop and a skip away. Can you imagine how we would have felt if a few Argentines had done the same in Ireland.

I met a couple of RAF pilots in the Burger King queue at Paddington a few years ago (it was late and I had been drinking). We got chatting on the train and they showed me pictures of their planes. They had just returned from the Falklands. Their favourite flying activity down there was to fly over the penguins, making the penguins look up. They would then double back and the penguins (still looking up) would keep looking and fall over backwards.

Given that Ireland isn't part of Britain, it wouldn't be for us to object either way. You don't get to decide what happens to nearby islands, simply because they're nearby. That's why Britain isn't entitled to Ireland, France isn't entitled to Britain, and Indonesia isn't entitled to East Timor.

And I fail to see how settling uninhabited land amounts to having a nerve. It isn't. Of all the things that Europeans did in the Americas, that's one of the very few morally blameless ones. If land is genuinely unoccupied and unowned- actually unowned, not unowned by people one wants to get out of the way- then it's there for the settling.

And if you're making a geographical proximity argument, its just as logical to argue that the islands should be independent as part of Argentina. They're hundreds of miles away from each other. Even if they were as close as Britain and Ireland though, that wouldn't give Argentina or anyone else the right to own them, over the heads of the people. A geographical proximity argument is always rubbish anyway. People have rights, land doesn't.

Falklands is literally the most boring place on earth. I couldnt live out there forever. Nice for the scenery but the people who live there forever must be a bit nutty

"A geographical proximity argument is always rubbish anyway. People have rights, land doesn't."

Well I think geographical proximity has a bearing on how the Briitish might have pissed off other countries in their time, and they shouldn't be THAT surprised.

Demographics of Argentina:

European 86.4%
Mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 8%
Arab 4%
East Asian heritage, Amerindian 1.4%

Just because a bunch of Europeans immigrated to Argentina, displacing the native population, a few hundred years ago, DOESN'T give them the right to claim Falklands over us, another bunch of Europeans.

The Falklands have never had any kind of indigenous population, they are all immigrants.