MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Visiting MP supports Falklands' PR campaign exposing Argentina
Spring is finally arriving in the Falklands after one of the wettest winters on record. The signs are many: evenings are longer, daffodils and snowdrops are appearing in Stanley gardens and the penguins that have spent the winter basking on beaches just South of Rio's Copacabana are busy cleaning out their burrows preparatory to laying their eggs, safe from predators.
Nor are penguins the only summer visitors. The Falklands have already seen the first of many cruise ship visits that are expected between now and April and this week also have been playing host to two visitors from the British Parliament, members of a cross-party group, which is particularly interested in this, the furthest flung of Britain's overseas territories.
Arriving on November 3rd on the direct military flight from Brize Norton on Oxfordshire were Labour MP, Sarah McCarthy Fry and Conservative MP Mike Penning, both relatively newcomers to politics and both shepherded on their first visit to the Falklands by the Falkland Islands Government Representative in London, Ms Sukey Cameron.
At the end of a packed programme, which ended on Thursday 9th November and included visits to farms and wild-life centres outside of Stanley, a day spent with the military at the Mount Pleasant Air Base and numerous meetings, dinners and lunches with legislative councillors, heads of government departments, Chamber of Commerce representatives, school children and others, the parliamentary visitors took time to talk to local media representatives about their impressions.
Ms McCarthy-Fry, has been since May 2005 a Member of Parliament for Portsmouth, which houses one of Britain's principal naval ports. A long-term resident of the city, she told Mercopress that in 1982 she had been one of thousands who had lined quay sides to wave farewell to the ships of the Royal navy which were departing to take part in the conflict in the South Atlantic.
Ms McCarthy?Fry said that she had been overwhelmed during the visit by the beauty of the scenery and by the warmth and hospitality of the people, who she said still showed a "true pioneering spirit". She reported that on Pebble Island she and her colleague had been fortunate enough to see five different species of penguin and said that she considered it a privilege to be able to get so close to nature.
Former soldier in the Brigade of Guards and now Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead near London, Mike Penning, said that because of his military background ? his father had served in the 3rd Parachute Regiment - the visit had been for him a very emotional one.
Asked how he thought the Falkland Islands should respond to various attempts by the current Argentine government to limit opportunities for economic development in the Falklands by maintaining a stranglehold on external communications ? described by one speaker at a reception held by the Chamber of Commerce as "economic terrorism" ? Mr.Penning said that in his personal opinion the truth about what was happening should be "shouted from the roof tops."
Warning that the kind of press and public relations campaign that would be needed to expose the pressure that the Falklands was being exposed to from Argentina would inevitably be expensive, Mr.Penning drew encouragement from the example of the recent agreements over communications signed between Spain, Britain and Gibraltar. The change in Spain's attitude, which no one would have expected, had come, he thought, at least partly as a result of their previous attitudes being embarrassingly exposed by a similar campaign mounted by Gibraltar.
Both Members of Parliament agreed that support for the Falkland Islanders' right to self-determination was solid across both the main political parties. This was not, said Ms.McCarthy-Fry, anything to do with Britain's desire to hold on to land, but all to do with the right of the people of the Falkland Islands to determine their own future.
Picture: Conservative MP Mike Penning and Labour MP Sarah McCarthy Fry at Pebble Island
John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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