Argentine Olympic advert calls Falklands "Argentine soil"

[Gups]

Gotcha.

[Martinus]

Anyway, I think it is absolutely ridiculous for the UK to claim sovereignty over a small rock off another country's shore, located on the other side of the globe from the UK.

Was it ridiculous for us to claim sovereignty over vast swathes of the world a couple of centuries ago? Australia's not in the English Channel, after all. Do you feel the same about the British Antarctic Territory or the Pitcairn Islands or Bermuda?

It wasn't as ridiculous back then as it is now. We don't do a lot of things today we used to do 400 years ago. It's called progress.

Also, Australia is obviously not a "small rock off another country's shore" so not sure how that is a valid analogy.

[PDH]

And yet we do a lot of things we did back then, it is called sensible.  I am not sure who gets to decide.

[DontSayBanana]

It wasn't as ridiculous back then as it is now. We don't do a lot of things today we used to do 400 years ago. It's called progress.

And giving a semi-self-governed colony to a country that's going to dismantle it and pretend its citizens don't exist is progress how, exactly?

[Martinus]

It wasn't as ridiculous back then as it is now. We don't do a lot of things today we used to do 400 years ago. It's called progress.

And giving a semi-self-governed colony to a country that's going to dismantle it and pretend its citizens don't exist is progress how, exactly?

There are app. 3000 people living in the Falklands. There's no way it can count as anything semi-self-governed.

[Sheilbh]

There are app. 3000 people living in the Falklands. There's no way it can count as anything semi-self-governed.

What do you mean?

[Martinus]

There are app. 3000 people living in the Falklands. There's no way it can count as anything semi-self-governed.

What do you mean?

3000 people living on a rock cannot build a self-governed, self-sustained community. That's probably less than the number of English tourists residing at any time in the Canaries. So I don't see how this should be relevant in giving the Malvines back to Argentina, which is obviously a natural sovereign there.

[CountDeMoney]

3000 people living on a rock cannot build a self-governed, self-sustained community.

Sure they can.  We did it for the better part of 2 centuries.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The Falklanders have significant powers. They could, for example, easily call for talks with Argentina and merge with that country if they got sick of UK oversight. For some reason, though, they seem extraordinarily resistant to the idea 

[DontSayBanana]

There are app. 3000 people living in the Falklands. There's no way it can count as anything semi-self-governed.

Mart, we recognize smaller units than that as sovereign- Vatican City, Malta...

Your love of bureaucracy is showing- with pop. 3,000, the only thing there isn't room for is bureaucratic bloat (or a military, but arrangements could be made with another sovereign, and really, isn't that kind of like what the situation is now?).

[Martinus]

There are app. 3000 people living in the Falklands. There's no way it can count as anything semi-self-governed.

Mart, we recognize smaller units than that as sovereign- Vatican City, Malta...

Uhm. Malta has over 400 thousand residents. 

[Sheilbh]

3000 people living on a rock cannot build a self-governed, self-sustained community. That's probably less than the number of English tourists residing at any time in the Canaries. So I don't see how this should be relevant in giving the Malvines back to Argentina, which is obviously a natural sovereign there.

Why not?  They've got an elected legislature and a separate judiciary that follows UK and ECHR rulings, they've control of everything but defence and foreign policy.  They're not sovereign but they're more self-governing than the DOM-TOM, for example.

I don't understand the view that sovereignty should follow some geographical interpretation and not the wishes of the people, that seems peculiar.  Especially when one country's got a history of military rule, unstable democracy and a dodgy record on human rights and the economy.

[Martinus]

Especially when one country's got a history of military rule, unstable democracy and a dodgy record on human rights and the economy.

Let's not get overboard there. Argentina is not a paradise either.

[DontSayBanana]

Uhm. Malta has over 400 thousand residents. 

Wrong Malta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta

[Brazen]

What do you recommend then Mart? Each country only gets the piece of land on which its capital is based then can only bid for other islands or territories within 500 miles of its coastline or borders?