Falkland Islanders vote on their future

The people of the Falkland Islands vote today and tomorrow in a referendum on whether they should retain their present status as a largely self-governing British Overseas Territory.

I would hope that both the British and Argentine governments should respect the wishes of the islanders as expressed in that referendum, whichever way it should go.

Not that there is much hope that the Argentine government will pay any attention. The present regime in Buenos Aires would not recognise an invonvenient the truth if their lives depended on it.

But it is worth noting that virtully all the UN "Decolonisation" resolutions about the Falklands which the Argentine president regularly calls on the UK to honour refer to the wishes of the inhabitants. The referendum to establish secret ballot what those wishes are is a good idea. By pretending that the Falkland Islanders and their wishes, quote, "do not exist" it is the government of Argentina, not that of the Britain, which is ignoring the very resolutions they quote.

 

Comments

Tim said…
What about a referendum whereby the Chagos Islanders can decide their own future ?
10:31 am
Chris Whiteside said…
In principle I'm not against that. I would like to see a resolution of the future of the Chagos Archipelago which involves the former islanders.

It would be nice to get to the point where there was a meaningful proposition which could be put to the islanders.
1:49 pm
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