The Hong Kong handover was a bit different. Britain asserted sovereignty over Hong Kong island, but Kowloon side and the New Territories were only leased. It would have been impractical to maintain Hong Kong as a colony without Kowloon.
This is incorrect. Kowloon was not leased; only the New Territories.
Well, it looks like the referendum was a close-run thing…
Three votes against the status quo, out of 1517 cast, and a turnout of greater than 90%.
I imagine that Argentina will gracefully acknowledge the result, and move on to removing the beam from its own eye.
I’m going with Argentina not fully accepting the results of the referendum. Just a hunch.
Meat packing glitterati?
No bet. Argentina obviously knew it was going to lose the referendum and has already been laying the groundwork for declaring it meaningless.
Baron Greenback’s link quotes the Argentinian argument: the people living on the islands shouldn’t be there in the first place because it’s Argentinian territory. Therefore they shouldn’t be allowed to vote on whether or not the islands should be Argentinian territory.
Why, that makes perfect sense!
:: begins braining self with penguin ::
And in any event, the 200 mile zone is a new development in international law. It’s only been formally recognized by international law in the late 20th century; can’t see how it can be used to try to challenge a sovereignty claim that dates back to the 1830s.
So the oil… If the Falklands raise their own taxes etc, the oil is theirs, rather than Britain’s, right? I mean Britain will probably not do badly out of it, but it’s not like they own that oil? Or do they? The Falklands have their own oil & gas company, they’re sorting it all out for themselves pretty much, right?
I just want to check, because I keep hearing about “colonial practices” etc, but as an overseas territory the Falklands seem rather independent to make that claim (esp. when the claim is "I don’t want you to colonise it, because I want to colonise it). If they are totally in charge of their own oil reserves that also rather negates the claim that Britain wants to cling on because of the oil. If Argentina got hold of the islands, presumably they would be in charge of the oil and not the islanders independently?
BTW no dice with the professor, she worded everything far to carefully for me to stand up and shout “shenanigans!”
Yes, and bonus point for persistence! (I’d forgotten I’d even posted that)
The Falkland Islands is a fake “conflict” because 99.99999% of the agitation comes from people who do not live there. The Argentine side just seems to have a lot of supporters among a certain snarky type of European who carries a grudge against the UK.
In fact, in that respect it has much in common with the Middle East - another fake conflict in my humble opinion (it shouldn’t be anything more significant than another Cyprus). I can’t decide which of these two is the stupidest “conflict” on the planet.
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And certain self-hating Britons.
The Falklands is a million times stupider. Cyprus actually has people on the island itself who are opposed (viciously) to each other’s residence there.
The Falklands are, pretty much unanimously, happy to be what they are now. They are quite a distance from Argentina, so it’s not like their existence interferes with Argentina’s enjoyment of their own country; I know it looks close on a globe, but they’re three times as far from Argentina as Cuba is from the USA, by way of comparison.
And the occasional deluded American movie star: Sean Penn Falklands dispute: Save us from stars who think they're world statesmen | Daily Mail Online
BTW, here’s what the new Pope said when he spoke about the Falklands last year: Falkland Islanders greet election of Argentine as Pope Francis with surprise | The Independent | The Independent
For anyone not wanting to read the whole article, he is quoted thusly:
Maybe he’ll stop saying dumb things now that he represents a broader congregation, but I’m not holding my breath.
I’m trying to come up with a Henry VIII joke here, but I got nothin’.
Maybe something about him asking the new Pope for a divorce from his 7th wive, Evita?
Of course, if Argentina goes to war over las Malvinas, again, it’ll be the first war in history where we actually know which side God is on.