Falklanders must decide who runs the islands

THE renewal of tensions between Britain and Argentina on the question of rival claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands reminds us of the vigour with which Margaret Thatcher, as Prime Minister, resolved the disagreement on its first eruption.

An important assertion made by Margaret Thatcher was to the effect that, and I paraphrase wildly “The people of the Falklands and no one else will determine the legitimacy of claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands”.

This proud claim we have heard repeated very recently, and yet it is a strange claim to make; it appears to suggest that the will of the people will be acknowledged by the Government of the people, and will be allowed to prevail. yet we know that is by no means always the case, despite its apparent democratic persuasiveness, and we know there are countless political and bureaucratic devices to evade meeting apparently cast iron commitments.

We can imagine an unlikely, though not impossible, situation in which the Falklands population might be persuaded that, for complex political and economic reasons, their best interest lay in transferring their political allegiance from Britain to Argentina.

In such a hypothetical case, the British government of the day, having proclaimed so firmly its determination to accept the will of the people, would have to accept it.

A rejection by the British Government of that decision, an overriding of political principle by political expediency would both put the people of the Falklands in a very difficult position.

It would also create extremely difficult political and diplomatic tensions between Britain and Argentina.

Governments which proclaim the sovereign will of the people as being of paramount importance commit themselves deeply.