# Guardian and the Falklands **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 14, 2012, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468 "2012-01-14T03:06:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468/61 "2012-01-23T11:14:36Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > Yes, it is. Nauseatingly so. No it isn’t. This is fun! ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468/62 "2012-01-23T11:24:17Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > No it isn’t. > > This is fun! Yes it is! Actually it isn’t. No organisation that has as Chief Political Correspondent a former chairman of the Young Conservatives is “nauseatingly” left-wing. Not that Nick Robinson is bad at his job or anything, but he’s only left-wing if you compare him to Sky’s equivalent, Adam Boulton. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468/63 "2012-01-24T10:55:35Z")
Well, in the interests of [del]flogging a dead horse[/del] stimulating debate: > [@](#): > > We need to foster peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking. [Ben Stephenson](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/jul/16/ben-stephenson-tony-garner) (BBC drama commissioning controller) > [@](#): > > The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It’s a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias [Andrew Marr](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-411846/We-biased-admit-stars-BBC-News.html) I think the second point is key - it’s not the “liberal bias of reality”, it’s the liberal bias of urban, middle-class “creatives”. The corridors of Broadcasting House are not full of Cumbrian sheep farmers or Dorset binmen, they tend to be stuffed with Oxbridge graduates who naturally incline towards the middle-left. Marr went on to say “_The BBC must always try to reflect Britain, which is mostly a provincial, middle-of-the-road country. Britain is not a mirror image of the BBC or the people who work for it._”. I suspect this is dragging the thread off-topic, but it seems to have died a natural death so this can be the nail in the coffin, but the BBC does overwhelmingly lean to the left. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468/64 "2012-01-24T13:55:52Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > They’re too small to be independent. Resources: sheep. Cliffs. Soldiers. This is not a sunny holiday archipelago. Erm, cite? There’s smaller territories that manage independence, and while it’s no holiday destination they’ve got extensive fishing rights…and obviously, the whole oil resource issue. Ignoring the cost of the UK military spending there, they are quite capable of supporting themselves. Current economy is around £120 million, which with a population of 3500 people is just fine. Chuck in licenses for oil exploration and, rather like the shetland islands, they actually become quite rich on a per capita basis. As for who they should belong to, by all means Britain and Argentina\* can argue about who is being the most colonial about it all, but surely it’s the wishes of the people who actually live there that should carry the weight on this one? The islanders currently have absolutely no interest in becoming Argentinian citizens.\*\* If Argentina had any sense they’d actually just be nice to the islanders, drop all the rhetoric about colonialism, and over a period of time persuade the islanders they have a lot more in common with their nearest neighbour than they do with Britain. Of course, to really win the issue, they could speed things up once good relations are established by actually having people from Argentina settle down there, but one of the problems they face is that it is a bleak place, and very few people want to do that. - answer: the respective governments of both are being fucking juvenile in an attempt to secure votes. Hurray for politicians. \*\*[Falklanders: We are the luckiest working-class people on earth | The Independent | The Independent](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/falklanders-we-are-the-luckiest-workingclass-people-on-earth-6292836.html?origin=internalSearch) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468/65 "2012-01-24T14:51:54Z")
> [@Gary\_Kumquat](#): > > but surely it’s the wishes of the people who actually live there that should carry the weight on this one? Would you also take into account the wishes of the people of Britain proper, who might or might not be interested in carrying the weight of the Falklanders, in financial and military terms? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468/66 "2012-01-24T15:00:21Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Would you also take into account the wishes of the people of Britain proper, who might or might not be interested in carrying the weight of the Falklanders, in financial and military terms? I don’t see how I can argue for self determination of the islanders, and also argue that non-residents should get a vote? Bit of a moot point though, as every poll suggests that the UK mainland would vote in favour of retaining the Falklands. Hell, If Argentina really want to get one over on the British, then persuading the Falklanders to come across would really piss them off. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468/67 "2012-01-24T20:23:47Z")
One might as well argue that the Palestinians can go and live somewhere else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guardian-and-the-falklands/609468.md?page=3)