Falkland Islands

[MasterG]

As this may contain some politics i think best here.

If the Argentinians decided they wanted to reinvade the Falklands do you think the outcome would be different this time around?

Last invasion we had some little help from the US by using their bases on the Ascension Islands as a refueling point. America wanted to stay neutral but did offer a helping hand.

Now we are in different times and things have shifted, especially with Trump, It seems he thinks the Argentinians should have the islands back.

So if it was invaded again, and proberly will at some point in the future, how will it go?

[Coco]

The Argie president is a big pal of trump.

Politically it will be impossible to give up.

Logistically difficult to defend

If trump turned round and said he would support Argentina, we would have to give it up

[Tinnie]

The Argie president is a big pal of trump.

He pretty much bought Milei's election. Gave Argentina 20 billion in financial aid, promised another 20 with the condition that Milei wins the (at the time) upcoming election.

That said id say Milei's ties are closer to Netanyahu than Trump. Milei's a massive zionist, was quoted a few months back saying he was the most zionist president in the world, not sure what Trump would have to say about that

[TheRiverCityHippy]

The Falklands War was one of the worst things that ever happened to this country because up until the Argentinians invading Thatcher was on her way out, she was enjoying Starmer type popularity until the war saved her arse.
I dont think the Miner's strike happens without that war. The Argentinians ended up inflicting more damage to this country than the likes of Hitler or Napoleon ever did.

[Coco]

The Falklands War was one of the worst things that ever happened to this country because up until the Argentinians invading Thatcher was on her way out, she was enjoying Starmer type popularity until the war saved her arse.
I dont think the Miner's strike happens without that war. The Argentinians ended up inflicting more damage to this country than the likes of Hitler or Napoleon ever did.

We would have been happy enough to quietly hand it over, it then cost far much to keep.
Won Thatcher the election in the end.
More recently a lot of oil has been found in the area.

[Carlos Slim]

I used to be a big advocate of the Falklands returning to Argentina - not any more.

The people who live there would be ethnically cleansed in the most brutal of fashion by a nasty regime. English would be banned in public and political life and they would transform the place by mass migration from the mainland which would destroy their way of life.

The problem is their way of life depends on the United Kingdom being united, if it breaks up as it probably will in the next 50 years, it is basically over for them, The US and how they view it - it's obviously changing how they view it - like coco says - if the Americans told us to hand it over, we would have to do it.

But I was listening to an interview by Max Hastings yesterday and he had an interesting viewpoint on it which went something along the lines of 'they care about these islands far more than we do (true...) and one day they will end up having them' which I agree with. It will never ever go away but once they have them - nothing good will come from it.

[Carlos Slim]

There will never ever be another war over them, the Argentine military is in a worse state than the UK one. I suppose they could fly over drones and bomb the shit out of the troops we have over there? I don't know - it's a risk not worth taking for them as the path to diplomacy says they stand a chance of getting them back. Another wars says they don't.

I prefer they got independence - go on - tell me how that can happen and how it can work!

[TheRiverCityHippy]

If the people who live on the islands want to be British then here's a novel idea, how about actually living in Britain? Move them here, somewhere rural so its a case of home from home for them, one of those remote Scottish islands or somewhere, then give the islands to the Argentinians and split any mineral rights 50/50 for the next 100 years.
This country needs to stop worrying about places halfway around the world and start worrying about itself.

[Coco]

If the people who live on the islands want to be British then here's a novel idea, how about actually living in Britain? Move them here, somewhere rural so its a case of home from home for them, one of those remote Scottish islands or somewhere, then give the islands to the Argentinians and split any mineral rights 50/50 for the next 100 years.
This country needs to stop worrying about places halfway around the world and start worrying about itself.

There is a lot of oil there

[Ricky]

Trident.

[Boxerbeetle]

If the people who live on the islands want to be British then here's a novel idea, how about actually living in Britain? Move them here, somewhere rural so its a case of home from home for them, one of those remote Scottish islands or somewhere, then give the islands to the Argentinians and split any mineral rights 50/50 for the next 100 years.
This country needs to stop worrying about places halfway around the world and start worrying about itself.

Maybe they don’t want to be immigrants and blamed for all of Britain’s woes

[Gnome]

If the people who live on the islands want to be British then here's a novel idea, how about actually living in Britain? Move them here, somewhere rural so its a case of home from home for them, one of those remote Scottish islands or somewhere, then give the islands to the Argentinians and split any mineral rights 50/50 for the next 100 years.
This country needs to stop worrying about places halfway around the world and start worrying about itself.

Maybe they don't want to be Argentine, and why should they?

[damage]

If the people who live on the islands want to be British then here's a novel idea, how about actually living in Britain? Move them here, somewhere rural so its a case of home from home for them, one of those remote Scottish islands or somewhere, then give the islands to the Argentinians and split any mineral rights 50/50 for the next 100 years.
This country needs to stop worrying about places halfway around the world and start worrying about itself.

There is a lot of oil there

There's oil in the North sea but we don't seem to want that.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Argentina have been given the green light by the White House FIFA task force to display their Falklands banner again if they win the World Cup on Sunday

The head of the task force Andrew Giuliani believes the Argentina players are allowed to express their opinions.

[Boxerbeetle]

If the people who live on the islands want to be British then here's a novel idea, how about actually living in Britain? Move them here, somewhere rural so its a case of home from home for them, one of those remote Scottish islands or somewhere, then give the islands to the Argentinians and split any mineral rights 50/50 for the next 100 years.
This country needs to stop worrying about places halfway around the world and start worrying about itself.

There is a lot of oil there

There's oil in the North sea but we don't seem to want that.

Looks like Burnham wants to explore that as an option, hopefully he ignores the cry-babies and hand-wringers

[MasterG]

Ive been chatting to an ex Falklands vet and asked him his opinion on the matter.

He said Argentina haven't got the finance or resources to attack again.

The Falklands have a platoon of soldiers permanently there and a couple of Euro fighter's. That should be enough to hold off any attack if it happens. Saying that the UK does not have the resources either so at the moment it's purely financial that the Argentinians won't attack

[Baby Face Finster]

Ive been chatting to an ex Falklands vet and asked him his opinion on the matter.

He said Argentina haven't got the finance or resources to attack again.

The Falklands have a platoon of soldiers permanently there and a couple of Euro fighter's. That should be enough to hold off any attack if it happens. Saying that the UK does not have the resources either so at the moment it's purely financial that the Argentinians won't attack

If there is oil there the Chinese might come a calling and take it over. Probably say they found it first. They claim they were first on almost everything. Maybe the South China Sea extends all the way across the Pacific and around Cape Horn to the Falklands.

[SticknMove]

Ive been chatting to an ex Falklands vet and asked him his opinion on the matter.

He said Argentina haven't got the finance or resources to attack again.

The Falklands have a platoon of soldiers permanently there and a couple of Euro fighter's. That should be enough to hold off any attack if it happens. Saying that the UK does not have the resources either so at the moment it's purely financial that the Argentinians won't attack

If there is oil there the Chinese might come a calling and take it over. Probably say they found it first. They claim they were first on almost everything. Maybe the South China Sea extends all the way across the Pacific and around Cape Horn to the Falklands.

Well they can’t but if they could do you think they should?

[banjo]

Argentina have absolutely no chance of taking the islands by force, they did it last time due to the element of surprise, which they no longer have.

In 1982 Argentina had the largest military in South America, largest air force and navy. They also had an aircraft carrier, however the sinking of the Belgrano led to Argentina pulling it's navy back to port.

Argentina's aircraft also had limitations, not all of their fighters were capable of air to air refueling so even with external fuel tanks they had limited time over the islands(because despite people saying they're just off the coast of Argentina, they're actually nowhere near, 300 miles at the nearest point to point) and the planes that could refuel in the air were hamstrung by the lack of tankers.

So their inability to put enough fighters in the area played into British hands because we only had 20 carrier capable fighters at the time and as good as those planes, pilots and missiles were you can only fight so many enemies and you can't have all 20 of those aircraft up at once. It's a shame we'd retired Ark Royal a couple of years earlier as it's air wing of Phantoms and Buccaneers would have been much more potent than the Sea Harriers, the Gannet AEW aircraft would have given us a huge advantage too.

[banjo]

There is a lot of oil there

There's oil in the North sea but we don't seem to want that.

Looks like Burnham wants to explore that as an option, hopefully he ignores the cry-babies and hand-wringers

Explore more nuclear power as well hopefully.

[banjo]

If the people who live on the islands want to be British then here's a novel idea, how about actually living in Britain? Move them here, somewhere rural so its a case of home from home for them, one of those remote Scottish islands or somewhere, then give the islands to the Argentinians and split any mineral rights 50/50 for the next 100 years.
This country needs to stop worrying about places halfway around the world and start worrying about itself.

The best thing to do would be to let them become an independent nation, neither the UK or Argentina have a legitimate right to them anyway, they were uninhabited islands only populated by birds originally.

[Carlos Slim]

If the people who live on the islands want to be British then here's a novel idea, how about actually living in Britain? Move them here, somewhere rural so its a case of home from home for them, one of those remote Scottish islands or somewhere, then give the islands to the Argentinians and split any mineral rights 50/50 for the next 100 years.
This country needs to stop worrying about places halfway around the world and start worrying about itself.

The best thing to do would be to let them become an independent nation,

This is the best long term solution to stop Argentina getting their hands on them. The only reason Argentina has a claim is because it's still a British colony (and before anyone starts - it's a fornicating colony like something that quacks is a duck) once it becomes a sovereign nation - Argentina would have to put their claims to it away, you cannot go around claiming or invading sovereign nations - well, not Argentina anyway.

Also, it would open it up to the rest of South America.

The Argentines also claim South Georgia and parts of the Antarctic which they have no rights to.

[coneye]

Yep remember them days well , No one gave a shit about a bunch of rocks miles away ,, until the argies invaded them and Jeez was that a great thing for Thatcher, there we were , She had stopped the milk for kids , will admit that was before she was Prime minister , She set about destroying unions , unemployment was kicking in , strikers and police going at it all the time , She destroyed the education system , basicly thats an age old thing , destroy the education system becuase half educated people are easier to control , just give them a pound rise in there unemployment shut them up .

But along came those Argies invaded some rocks with sheep and a few hundered people who clamed to be English , and off she went , banging the drum singing rule Brittania , and a complete nation went beserk , screaming for Argie blood , the p[atriism she stirred up was incredible , biggest con job in the history of politics , whats more it done the job , she went from Witch to Saviour overnight ,

Do remember though they brought out a weekly magazine called the Falklands after ,don't know how many weeks , i'll go have a look , remember buying them weekly on subscription , read them once and put them away , stating to the wife these will be worth big money for the full set in years to come , whats more i still have them only thing i've ever saved for years besides a few old Lp's , only ever read them once has well , years ago , suppose i'll passthem down has familly heirlooms LOL

[Taansend]

I really really hated that bloody milk in the afternoons at school.

It was warm & nasty & then they would make us sleep on the floor afterwards. I could never sleep & the teachers would give you a little boot in the back. So you'd be laying there, not tired, on a dirty dusty floor with a belly full of warm milk sloshing about while an angry menopausal woman kicked you.

We should have been learning instead of this daily abuse.

To this day I still do not know all 23 letters of the Alphabet.

[Beltane]