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Lord Hague warns Brexit could put at risk Falklands' sovereignty and cautions about UK “disintegration”
“The guaranteed solidarity of 28 nations, including those with strong historic links to Latin America, over British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands would be lost”. 
Lord Hague said Gibraltar would be left in a very difficult position and warned BOTs were united in fearing “seriously adverse consequences” of a Brexit. 
“Gibraltar in particularly would be left in a very difficult position, with no remaining obligations for Spain to maintain an open border,” said Lord Hague Former foreign secretary William Hague said that if Britain votes to leave the European Union, the Falkland Islands sovereignty could be put at risk, while Gibraltar would left in a very difficult position. The statement was published this week by The Telegraph in an article under the heading: “Brexit would put the Falkland Islands' sovereignty at risk”
The piece picks on a speech at the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in London, where Lord Hague said: “The guaranteed solidarity of 28 nations, including those with strong historic links to Latin America, over British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands would be lost“. He added that the issues were “serious enough for wars to have been fought over them”.
The former Conservative leader also warned that Gibraltar would be left in a very difficult position and that Britain's overseas territories were united in fearing “seriously adverse consequences” of a Brexit.
Lord Hague also underlined that a vote for Brexit vote could lead to the “disintegration” of the whole United Kingdom. He said Scotland could hold a second independence referendum following a Brexit and said there would be enormous implications for Northern Ireland if it had a border with the Republic.
“A large proportion of Northern Ireland’s trade crosses that border and a great deal of the EU expenditure in Britain supports the peace process on both sides of it,” he said.
“Gibraltar in particularly would be left in a very difficult position, with no remaining obligations for Spain to maintain an open border,” he said.
The result could be considerable financial and personal hardship for many people fiercely loyal to the UK.”
“Like many British people, I believe passionately in the unity in future of the United Kingdom, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and in our responsibilities to people of British overseas territories.
“I do not believe that leaving the EU would be an act consistent with maintaining that unity or fulfilling those responsibilities.
“How ironic it would be if people thought there was something patriotic or particularly pro-British about leaving the EU only to discover that it led to the disintegration of our country and dealt a permanent blow to overseas territories who look to us for leadership and protection.”
Lord Hague dismissed as ”total fantasy” claims made by the Leave camp about the benefits of a vote to break from Brussels. And he said claims the UK could be drawn into forming part of an EU army were “utter rubbish”.
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Read all commentsBreak up of UK, end of Gibraltar, end of Falklands, the world economy will go into deccline, Russia will attack Europe, UKs influence in the world will diminish, the EU will stop trading with the UK
Jun 09th, 2016 - 11:09 am 0The IN crowd have missed out ebola and zombies.
Slight problems with Hague's arguments.
Jun 09th, 2016 - 11:45 am 0How did Britain's overseas territories get on before Britain joined the EEC? The answer is: Very well. We did a lot of trade with them. In fact, we do less trade with them now. But they've found other ways.
How did Gibraltar get on pre-EEC when Franco closed the frontier? Don't recall Gibraltar closing down. But I'll make a suggestion that I've made before. If the Government of Gibraltar were to invest in fleets of, relatively, small aircraft and sea-going high speed catamaran ferries, it could set up links with suitable North African countries like Morocco. By air or sea, just how quick would the trip be? It's 37 miles.
In terms of distance, the Falklands is a bit different. But when we needed to get there, we got there. And it's not as difficult as it used to be. We have the aircraft to cover the distance in one flight and less than 24 hours.
People always get frightened by something new or different. But leaving the EU is an opportunity. People just need to work at it. No more EU rules to have to comply with. The EU goes on about its “four freedoms” but what are those freedoms? Free to travel freely. Except you still have to have valid documents. Some countries may not do checks at the border. They do them on the street instead. Freedom to live where you want. Whether you've got a job or not. So that includes the freedom to claim benefits and housing wherever. The other “freedoms” are about goods and services. Totally free, except for the documentation and taxes.
In return for those “freedoms” we gave up our right to make and live by the laws we want. That are particularly suited to us. We gave up our right to make trade agreements that we want on terms that suit us. Take the EU-Mercosur trade talks. For the time being, beef is off the table. But that's a last minute thing. Certain south american countries were rubbing their hands as they contemplated shipping millions of tons of rubbish.
**** Breaking News **** Breaking News **** Breaking News ****
Jun 09th, 2016 - 12:44 pm 0It has been officially announced by ‘experts’ that if the UK leaves the EC then there will be a massive increase in sunspot activity which will cause an electro-magnetic pulse which will destroy all the worlds computers!!!!
Seriously though folks:- after the RoI rejected the Treaty of Lisbon in a referendum the Government got some concessions from the EC and re-ran the referendum using exactly the same scare tactics that are being used in the UK. ‘Experts’ announced that if we didn’t approve the ToL then the Irish economy would collapse, the value of houses would halve, Irish banks would collapse taking our savings with them etc. etc.
So, properly chastened the Irish public voted massively in favour of the ToL and what happened – the Irish economy collapsed, house values halved (and have still nowhere near recovered leaving tens of thousands of families in equity traps) and the Irish banks very nearly collapsed. If not for our friends across the water giving us an immediate ten billion euro loan with no strings attached God only knows what would have happened especially as the ECB, IMF etc didn’t want to know unless the Irish government allowed us to be ‘Greeked’ which they did….
Additional thoughts:-
Economics is like astrology but without the certainty of planetary motion.
Definition of ‘expert’ – ‘ex’ is a has been and a ‘spert’ is a drip under pressure
‘Call me Dave’ have you ever heard of the story of the boy who cried wolf?
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