Falklands answer (From Bucks Free Press)
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Falklands answer
11:53am Friday 19th March 2010 in
RE: The suggestion from a correspondent that the stand-off in the Falkland Islands could be avoided by sharing of oil development proceeds.
MR M GRAY (Letters, March 5) offers an interesting thought but no long term solution. The problem is sovereignty, not oil, unknown when Britain occupied the lands and allowed British people to settle there.
From which it follows that the British Government, not the islanders, must have the right to determine when the occupancy should end.
In 1982, 1,800 people might have been offered half a million pounds per head – not per family – to move back here, at a total cost of £900m.
Much death and destruction could have been avoided and a true test of loyalty been undertaken – namely, that British citizenship and support relate to living in Britain, working for the country and paying British taxes like the rest of us. Ditto Gibraltar.
Alan Kaye, Mill Road, Marlow.
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Eachban says...
12:29am Sat 20 Mar 10
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The problem of course is that the Falklands is an eco-political issue, the population having no desire to live as Argentinians being a convenient thing for UK 'ownership'.
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As I recall, there is a large, possibly the largest, chunk of Antarctica ceded to the Falkland Islands, and this is the principle reason we have a continuing interest in sovereignty. You see the international pact not to exploit Antarctic resources will end sometime, and when it does we will own the rights to a substantial chunk of those resources, whatever they may turn out to be.
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There are moral and technical issues surrounding this, but those are not things politicians are well known for concerning themselves with.