MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Post-82 Falklands generations ever more distant from Argentina
MLA Roger Edwards attended the Labour party conference in Manchester The “belligerent” policy of Argentina towards the Falklands/Malvinas Islands has only harvested the antipathy of the young generations of the Islands born since the 1982 conflict said elected Member of the Legislative Assembly Roger Edwards
“Instead of trying to win our support, they’ve done exactly the opposite”, said MLA Edwards interviewed in Manchester where he attended the annual Labour party conference.
“The Argentine government has tried to corner us socially, politically, environmentally and any other way they can think of”, added the Falklands’ MLA.
Edwards warned that this attitude “has created a new strong-minded generation of Falkland Islanders contrary to Argentina” and any links with Argentina, which is “negative and totally counter productive”.
“We would like to have a normal good-neighbours relation with Argentina”, pointed out MLA Edwards.
“We could even be the best of trade partners and neighbours you can imagine; but as long as they continue with this nebulous claim over the Falklands, we simply can’t be neighbours, which is regrettable”, underlined Edwards.
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Read all commentsThis is the reality, well articulated by the British journalist Simon Jenkins in the British newspaper “The Guardian”:
Oct 01st, 2010 - 02:50 am 0“The right to self-determination of the islanders – long the obstacle to any deal with Argentina – has to be qualified. Intransigent in their response to the Ridley negotiations and backed by neo-imperialist rightwingers in the House of Commons, the islanders demanded and got their rescue by the 1982 task force and extravagant support ever since. They have rebuffed all efforts by later Buenos Aires mediators to re-establish contact”.
“In other words, 2,500 colonists cannot enjoy an unqualified veto on British government policy. Thatcher thought it was in Britain's interest to negotiate with Argentina in 1982, even when it was a dictatorship. Now that Argentina is a democracy that interest can hardly have diminished. Subsequent British governments knew this, but were too gutless to act on it”.
If you allow me, I want to suggest that answer on the note, and the words of Simon Jenkins. I think also it should be noted that the opinion of Jenkins, is not an opinion either, it is a qualified opinion. His resume speaks for him, and objectivity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Jenkins
JPL.
Simon Jenkins is a journalist with a book to sell !
Oct 01st, 2010 - 03:29 am 0So much for objectivity.
The views of the islanders are paramount. The British Government recognises that and has the courage to stand up for them. Argentina is totally irrelevant in this. Argentina has never owned the islands and this long standing attempt to take what was never theirs diminishes the Argentines in the eyes of the world.
The Falkland Islanders will decide their own future and obviously from this article their nearest neighbour (400 km) will play no part in their decisions.
The Falkland Islands have never belonged to Argentina ... and I doubt they ever will !
Argentina has no right, and no hope!!
JPL, again with the view of Simom Jenkins?!
Oct 01st, 2010 - 04:01 am 0If there are more than a handful of people in Britain who agree with what he writes, I would be very surprised.
Rather than British Governments being weak on the subject of the Falkland Islands, they have been, in the main, very strong in their stance that the future of the Falklands is in the hands of the Falkland Islanders. Their future will not to be decided by Britain and certainly not by Argentina.
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