Friday, January 20, 2012

The British Empire is over -The Falkland Islands - Are they British?

The british have again laid claim to the legitamacy of the Britishness of the Falkland Islands . When Argentina claimed the Islands in the early 80s the british sent a fleet into the Southern Atlantic to reclaim what were little more than a cluster of craggy patches where sheep farmers eeked out a meagre living .
The Times ran an editorial to substantiate the Tory claim yesterday .
The following comments ensued ( among many others ) Mine are those headed ''Don '


Don says
The war was Thatcher's ''Churchill-moment ''.
She wanted a war to confirm that she was as Iron as her soubriquet suggested , and her Ministers confirmed
Best forget about the Falklands now.
The British invasion of the island of a few scattered sheep in the southern Hemisphere -( before the war ) was as inglorious as the sinking of the hospital ship Belgrano. Sunk while it was in retreat in neutral waters .
Besides what difficulty did Barroness Thacher ever have in non accommodating brutal dictators. What about Pinochet ?
The personal sense of triumph which the war undoubtedly brought to Thatcher will always be linked to her
ravenous appetite to be remembered as being as bellicose as any man .
Then she went on to dismember British Society , saying there was no such thing as society - Yes . In a different context - She and Reagen agreed on the liberation of the markets allowing them free reign .; but at the same time abandoning central Keynesian economic philosophy , which was all about society.


Mike says

January 20, 2012 4:52 PM

What the hell does that have to do with the rights of the Falkland islanders to self determination or the current threat posed by the Argentinians to obtain sovereignty over them and to try blocade them into submission !


Don Says

Mike ,
You come from the generation which believed that there was a ''Right of Conquest ''- Colonialism . Britannia

Rules ,and all that rot .
Sorry , But they've discovered that its an oxymoron , or something .
But yours Mike is the land of Alf Garnett - Till Death Do Us Part-
Alfred Edward Garnett. was reactionary, self righteous mean-spirited, selfish, bigoted, anti-Irish, anti-Catholic, Jingoistic racist, , who only disliked Mrs Thatcher because he believed a woman's place was in the kitchen , "chained to the bloody kitchen sink!" ..
The war had nothing to do with protecting residents of the Malvinas .
It was to secure in her time the great British Empire , and meanwhile diverting public attention from her unpopularity at home . Good -time- to release- bad -news strategy.( familiar ?)

But Mike ..Ahh THe Empire .!!
What Ho Mike ..Ye Olde Empire.
But riddle me this . Why did the sun never set on the Empire ?
Because God didn't trust the Brits in the dark .
And now what have we have .. well ... a kingdom ? a disunited one perhaps.and we have OBE's and stuff even if the '' E'' is no longer for Empire , but Excellence
But maybe they should send those self same soldiers north and knock some sense into those Scottish Celts who just dont know how bloody good things are for them...too late for Wales I suppose . Well , we still have the Prince of Wales , whether the Welsh like it or not ..More mule pigheadedness from more thankless Celts.
The residents of the Malvinas have the right to self determination without any assistance from Britain or should that be England ? And when they do vote on the issue they can themselves determine what they wish to be ,through the auspices of the UN - exclusively .
Now what would Alf think about that ?



Mike had many other comments on other peoples comments which is why I introduced the Alf Garner character .
Despite claims made by the British ( esp Tory party- Who knew what Blair was ever thinking other than stacking up facts for his memoirs and after dinner speeches at 100 Grand a whack ?)
Ultimately it must come down to a referendum. But my guess that any Brit borne in the 90's has no idea what the Falklands war was about or where in fact the Falklands are located .
But the new interest is not motivated from any sense of loyalty to a former colony . Now there's the whiff about the Islands , and that is what is making them British . The three most powerful words in geo-politics O.I.L.
There is the added urgency that with the threat by the Iranians in the Straits of Hormuz , the British source of cheap oil would be jeopardized , as N sea Oil is running out rapidly .

Look out for more of this Jingoistic Oxbridge rants in the coming months , and think of Alf , who despite his fictitious background as being low working class is a Tory supporter. He would now be a member of the National Front of course . His son would be married to a coke addicted hooker . He would be tattooed from forehead to toe with God Save the Queen , and I LOVE LINDA on his forearms , and I LUV MUM on his fingers

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