Wednesday 9 February 2022

Annals in the “You don’t say!” category | China supports Argentine claim in Falkland’s and ...


 …and....Argentina supports China claim on Taiwan. Gasp! I wondered if this article would mention this obvious quid pro quo. Yeah it does, but buried in the last para.

Please note the rank hypocrisy here: colonialist Argentina, relying on Spanish colonists for its claim, and China, brutal colonists of Tibet and Xinjiang, agreeing that Falkland islanders — who unanimously want to remain British —  must be handed over to an incompetent colonialist government for the sake of “anti colonialism". Go take a flying… fellas!

Happens I’ve been to the Falklands. With my daughters in February 2008, part of a fabulous trip to Antarctica, via Falklands and South Georgia. I always tell folks planning a trip to Antarctica that they must go via South Georgia (of Shackleton fame) and the Falklands. South Georgia especially is Absolutely Fabulous.

We landed at Stanley, the capital. Which has pretty much the whole population of the islands. I remember it well. We did a pub crawl on the main street. I asked the locals at every opportunity what they thought of the Argentinian claims. They must’ve been pretty sick of this question. But maybe not, as that was still early days in travel to the South. In any case, they were friendly enough and very, very clear. To a man, woman and sheep: we want to stay British. That was confirmed in a 2013 referendum: on a 92% turnout 99.8% voted to stay British

What “the people” think, what they feel, matters not one jot to brutal Beijing and colonial Argentina. Claim the islands, and be damned