Fat Git wrote:
Because colonialism is wrong, the UN even said so.
The UN is not the last word in everything unless you don't have the ability to think for yourself.
Fat Git wrote:For people to rule via proxy thousands of miles away is wrong, the fact that we pay millions of taxpayers money to upkeep a sheep station is wrong, the fact that over 600 of our former servicemen have now lost their lives through action or by their own hand is wrong and the facts are it has nothing to do with the people - it is to do with the fact it is rich in minerals and wealth. If there was nothing there worth having then those islands would have been in Argentine hands long ago. Let's get to the truth - the peoples wishes count for jack shit in this or any other country and I think only one British colony (Newfoundland in 1949) had a referendum reagarding independence from Britain. People don't get asked if they want independence or not - they just get given it and they get on with it - wherever they want to stay British or not.
I don't know what you're getting at is because this paragraph is a jumble of disconnected points. Even if we assume for the moment that ruling from thousands of miles away is wrong (which I suppose means that Moscow has no right to rule over Vladivostock, or that the US has no right to rule over Hawaii), the fact that the area is rich in minerals and wealth would make a pretty good additional reason to hold on to it, most especially from the point of view of those who stand to gain the most from those things - the people that live there. The example of Newfoundland - essentially granting the power of choice to a colony - would be a great precedent to follow in this situation.
The 'outsiders' I referred were those who think they should be forced into self-determination against their own wishes.
Fat Git wrote:Eh? How silly, so anybody who has an opinion different from their 'own' is an outsider? I pay tax to upkeep the total running of those islands, sure - they pay their own share but so do we - as a taxpayer I have every right to say I do not want this burden on us anymore.
Unless you live there, then yes, you are an outsider. Petition the government about it if you think the burden to you as a taxpayer is unreasonable.
Your idea that they should be forced to leave their homes, land and lives to go to a country most of them have never set foot on and have no support networks on just because they want to retain the British identity they've had for generations is absurdly authoritarian.
Fat Git wrote:You are an idiot.
Read that again!
So they have to be forced to go to Britain - a country that they have never been to so they can retain their British identity?
That's funny...
Ugh, more of the childish ad hominem shit. That was what YOU suggested: that if they want to remain British they should go back to the UK and start over. I guess while we're at it we should tell all the Northern Irish loyalists that if they want to retain a British identity they should leave Ireland and come here. Never mind their lives and families, they'll be welcome here!
If their relationship with us 'means nothing', then why do they seem pretty keen to maintain it when it would have been easier to simply acquiesce to the Argentinian invasion and tell the British they weren't needed?
Fat Git wrote:Who said their realtionship with the UK 'means nothing' I don't think I said that -
Fat Git wrote:The Falklands are mineral rich but cut off from South America which is not really practical and b) Their wish to remain British is not paramount to keeping those islands British - in fact, that relationship is tenuous at best, actually, it means nothing as it happens, if they want to be British then go back to the UK where they will be welcome.
Yes, you did.
This is only an issue if you think that there's something inherently worse about a colony than a country descended from a colony. There isn't if the people in that colony want to be in the colony. Which they do. Go ask the natives of Argentina how much of a difference it makes to them that Argentina is no longer a colony of Spain.
Fat Git wrote:So that supports my arguments does it not. The Argentinians would not want to be ruled by Spain and in fact kicked them out long ago. However, we can say the same for the Australians though who didn't kick the British out and didn't get their own official nationality until 1949. I think we agree that the Falklanders have their own culture and a unique way of life - if they became 'Falkland Islanders' nothing at all would change except they would be rulers of their own destiny - which would be better for them.
No it doesn't. It shows that a lot of colonies either kick out their rulers or end up independent. The Falklands are getting a chance to vote on that, but ultimately it's not your decision, it's theirs.
Fat Pig wrote:As colonists, they don't have that right.
Why not?
Fat Pig wrote:Because colonialism is wrong, we don't have to get into the rights and wrongs about colonialism do we?
So as soon as the Argentinians stopped technically being a colony by kicking out the Spanish, they gained the right to do whatever they want? Like kill the natives down to less than 3% of the population? You don't seem to have registered that you're drawing this arbitrary moral distinction based on whether a territory is still under another country's political control. The people on the Falklands don't lose the right to have whatever identity they want because they haven't bothered to declare independence.
Fat Pig wrote:'We want this place to remain British for ever and ever' like a spolit child wanting its cake and eating it. A) The practicalities are making this less possible by the decade B) The new powers of the world - the Chinese, the Russians and the Brazilians - support Argentinas claim and the next time they attack they will make sure they do it right.
So your argument for not keeping the colony is that Argentina might want to colonise it themselves?
Fat Pig wrote:That is a big part of it, one day we won't be able to defend it and the Argentinians will march in while we sit there being able to do nothing about it. If you wanted to safeguard the future for those islanders that you care so much about - wouldn't it be that bit better to find ways of securing their future on those islands?
Yes. But it's up to them.
As I said above, this is an excellent argument for independence, but it's not up to anyone but the islanders to make that choice themselves.
Fat Pig wrote:Not true again, I have never known 3000 people hold this much power anywhere in the world - when Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica etc got their independence (don't get confused with Dominion status) from the UK, it wasn't through a referendum - they were given it and were told to get on with it. I don't see why it has to be different now
Apart from Newfoundland, who you've already cited
It isn't 'gobblygook' just because you don't understand it. If 'it is all part of Britain' then by definition they should not be asked to leave and go to the UK because the islands are part of Britain.
Fat Pig wrote:It is not part of Britain, it is not part of the 'British Isles' it is in fact nowhere near Britain and can only be classed as a part of Britain if you have a blinkered, colonialist midnset. If the people there feel British and want to remain British then there is a place where they can be just that - It's called Great Britain - not some pimple on the arse of the Anctartic.
It can be classed as part of Britain if it remains under the political control of Britain and those that live there want it to be so. Hawaii and Guam are also nowhere near the US and do not make sense as part of the country geographically. I appreciate that you can't disagree with someone without resorting to 'idiot' and 'blinkered colonialist', but this is as simple as the inhabitants wishing to retain an identity and us allowing them to have it.
If they are their own entity, for which there are strong arguments to be made, then great - that would be their choice, not that of anyone else.
Fat Pig wrote:We have gone through this, as a British taxpayer I have a say as well. I am sure that a load of sheep farmers having a whale of a time with the benefits of free university education, subsidised housing and all the other benefits down there 10000 miles away want to keep their little sheep station paradise going then they can pay for it and man their defences - what is wrong with that?
Then protest about it. I got no say when the last government pissed away billions and dragged us into 2 unnecessary wars, so that is what I did. If every taxpayer got to vote on every item of expenditure government would grind to a halt instantly.
Such a decision would be itself a form of self-determination. There is a massive moral reason why those islands should stay British
No there isn't
- everyone living there wants them to be,
Fat Pig wrote:The they can go back to Britain.
From their point of view, they are in Britain and have no reason to go to the UK.
and to order them to leave behind their lives just because you think they shouldn't identify as something that they do is authoritarian and unjustifiable.
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Fat Pig wrote:No it doesn't you silly boy, they would have more freedom to run their own affairs - do you know how many representatives they have in British parliment? None - do you know how many native born Falklanders have been governer general of those islands? None.
Ordering people to leave behind their land, businesses, livelihoods is not authoritarian and unjust? Ridiculous.
Unless you think that somehow the descendants of colonisers do not deserve to have their wishes respected, in which case the views of the Argentinians are also worthless.
Fat Pig wrote:What do you mean - 'descedants of colonisers' they are colonisers today! If they want to remain British - then back to the UK and stop holding on to bits of land that they have no right to be hanging on to. If they want to make a go of it in an independent state then thats all well and good.
I have already addressed this somewhat arbitrary moral distinction you keep making between colonies that declared independence after wiping out most of the natives and those that never became independent. If they have no right to hang on to that land, neither do the Argentinians, unless you think that changing your flag somehow wipes out all your sins and gives you moral rights you didn't have as a coloniser.
My view is that it is because there is no native population who thinks otherwise. We shall have to disagree.
Fat Pig wrote:It looks like we are going to have to - don't be upset though when the day comes they aren't British anymore.

I'm not going to be, I don't live there.