Why do the very same British leftists who claim that Britain needs to be in the EU as it is too small to go it alone want to constantly further diminish Britain’s power by giving up Chagos and other territories?

[boltj]

These people hate their country so much. Why would you want to make it weak by giving up land when no other country would willingly give up territories for “feelgood” reasons then complain you need to be in the EU as you’re now too weak?

Lots of rightists think Britain needs to be in the EU too…..

Being part of an organisation of countries in the same continent who all trade with each other, make international law together and support each other is not at all comparable to owning land that is thousands of miles away.
And there is no doubt that the UK is a tiny island with little influence on it's own, owning an Island that was originally taken by force from the indigenous people doesn't alter that.
I don't understand your argument OP

TBF it is strategically important to us (the Chagos) which is why we are paying Mauritius to lease back the land we used to own. Having given it to them not even for free...we've paid them to take it from us.

Classic Starmer.

Most of the negotiating was done under the tories.

The UK pretty much had to give them back, because UN stuff. Link below with links to the UN cases, that the link below has the links:
Chagos Islands: UK’s last African colony returned to Mauritius | UN News

Where do you get the 30 billion number from, and the tax stuff ? When I search I get numbers between 3.4 and 8 billion. ( my internet is restricted because of location)

Financial times reported in May that the UK will pay 101 mn a year.

Population of Mauritius is 131 mill, so that works out the UK will pay 77 pence per year per capita ?

Yeah, those Mauritius folk are gonna be draped in gold with 77 pence per year each.

Indeed - there seems to be an idea that only ‘lefty’s’ (sic) think Britain is economically better placed being in the EU - plenty of hard nosed economists ( most in fact) do too as well as Tory politicians ( hardly lefty’s- and most sadly booted out or left to go along with a move towards Reform mentality) -whereas plenty of unrealistic Lexiters thought the country would be able to go around subsidising every uneconomic business and its mother if out the EU -what with? Shirt buttons? God knows why they thought any international business would invest/locate here unless it was something like spam farms or something involving iffy practices with money or services-

OP makes a false premise.

This claim the OP makes, " Why do the very same British leftists who claim that Britain needs to be in the EU as it is too small to go it alone want to constantly further diminish Britain’s power by giving up Chagos and other territories? ", is a gish gallop of ill defined stements, with possibly no statistically significant numbers of people in this group.

It's a pointless argument.

First up, British folk on the left did not make the argument that Britain is too small to go it alone. Not many anyway. The argument was that we should stay in one of the world,s largest free trade blocs. Not the same thing.

" Diminish Britains power" ? I have no idea what this means. Needs defining.

" Giving up Chagos ...". Technically we had to return the Islands, cos UN rulings and that boring international treaty stuff. Court cases too. Britain lost them.

"......and other territories ". What other territories ?

Total cost from a Freedom of Information request £34.7 billion.

The Tories arent in government.

There's no legally binding judgement requiring thr UK to give up the islands. The Chagossians themselves are objecting to the transfer.

There's no legally binding requirement to give up the Islands particularly to a random country

This was decided nearly 10 years ago.

Cool.

The thing is, although I am a leftist, I am not a leftist who said the UK is too small to go it alone outside the UK. I was in the remain camp yes, but that's not why.

So the OP's premise does not apply ?

I also can't really look too much into it, it appears to be a restricted subject on the new where I am.

This website I found here for example, not the best site.

UN court rules UK has no sovereignty over Chagos islands - London Daily

Another part of the premise that does not apply to me is that I do not think "losing" the islands in any way diminishes Britains power, no matter what way that power is defined.

It's an uninhabited atol in the Indian ocean.

The military base there is American.

Oh dear Lord...

I wasn't really arguing about that (which I know is the subject of the thread but I haven't got much of a view). My main concern is the amount we, our children and grandchildren need to pay to Mauritius (a Chinese ally). Enough for them to lower their own income tax rates.

Giving up control of Diego Garcia will probably turn out to be a mistake down the line though.

The Chagos deal happened because of Brexit.
While we were in Europe, we had the EU votes behind us in the ongoing dispute with Mauritius over sovereignty of the Islands. Without the backing of the EU it became necessary to make a deal in order to protect our military based on the islands.

That's obviously not true.

Foreign policy is carried out by the UK and always has been. We aren't in a military alliance with the EU. We aren't in a political alliance and never have been.

Votes where?

£30bn over 100 years, inc inflation.

The Tories of course changed their minds, as they saw political gain in doing so, they negotiated the deal, much like they now do with x ch migration, all on Labour, you'd think no boats crossed on their watch and hotels were first introduced by Labour too.

The issue i have with the 'right is that anything good that happens under Labour is all due to Tory policies but anything (negotiated by the Cons) is on Labour.

See fall in legal migration

I'd suggest the Chagos deal clearly has absolutely no positive benefit for the UK and is a failure of statecraft. Labour being the one that rushed to agree it are the ones on the hook.

Its easy being in opposition. Now Labour have to take responsibility for failure on their watch (and obviously credit for any successes if there turn out being any).

At the UN General Assembly

The EU didn't ever vote as a bloc with the UK on foreign policy.

The UN just voted on a legal opinion not a ruling. Its only because we currently have the rule of lawyers that we decided we needed to act against the UKs national interest. Pathetic

Incidentally the UN has had its day. Particularly bearing in mind who is on the Security Council. It has lost most of its moral authority which is why few countries pay any attention to it any more. We will need a new institution that isn't corrupted.

What is all this American lingo infesting Mumsnet? Leftist?? In proper English we say leftwingers. Ditto ‘liberal’ being used incorrectly.

Britain does not have a military base there. The USA does.

It reflects the general numbing down of discourse in this country. I see Shabina Mahmood has been effing and jeffing in Parliament yesterday. Although she was just repeating what someone said to her, its still pretty crass.

This is one of the many things I love about the UK - concise, cutting put downs, beautifully presented!

Leftist. Sigh. Makes my skin crawl like 'woke' does.

Crasser still to call people vile racist names.