THE FALKLAND ISLANDS (2)

Well, blow me over with a feather duster. In a referendum on the Falkland Islands, asking the local population whether they wanted to remain British, 1,517 out of 1,672 eligible voters cast their ballot, and 1,513 said yes. That is a better result than the former Soviet Union ever managed, and probably even better than North Korea.

And just as farcical. The British Government is touting this as an important exercise in democracy and self-determination. But as I pointed out in my previous post on the islands, the self-determination principle was abandoned when Hong Kong was given back to China (yes, the New Territories were on a long lease, but Hong Kong island itself had been given to the British "in perpetuity"). And, lest we forget, the British were negotiating to get rid of the islands when Argentina rashly invaded in 1982. Which is why the whole Foreign Office ministerial team, headed by Lord Carrington, had to resign.

Argentina would do well to ignore the whole thing, not get annoyed, and play a Chinese-style long game. The Falkland Islands are a colonial relic; indeed, it is hard to imagine a piece of land on the globe further from Britain than the islands. It may take a while, but eventually they will end up being decoupled from the motherland, in the same way as all of the other colonies that once belonged to Britain.

Walter Blotscher