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Bit of a stretch isn’t it?

Leaving the European Union would fuel Argentinian aggression towards the Falkland Islands, a senior representative from the territory has warned.

Like, currently Buenos Aires cowers before the terrible might of Brussels sorta thing?

37 thoughts on “Bit of a stretch isn’t it?”

  1. Scraping the barrel now aren’t you Stevie.

    The UK crims down there make up a more dangerous fighting force than the Spanish military.

    Time the UK re-vamped and massively boosted our military anyway.

  2. There seems to be one bogus or exaggerated Brexit scare story per day – price of wine, cancelled holidays, etc, then this one. Gibraltar was last week, I think. It’s probably a quite effective tactic, keeping up a low steady drumbeat of negative stuff. Clever, if deliberate.

  3. So you’re suggesting the population of Gib should invade Spain in the case of leave after the UK beefs up the army there.

    Tell you what, we haven’t had a war in yonks. They’re so much fun on the TV and that. OK I’m in.

    UK! UK! UK!
    OUT! OUT! OUT!

  4. Stevie–You are already a paid traitor. What use would you be apart from giving the Dons a larf?

    .

  5. Ironic all this really; it was the sight of EU peacekeepers in the Balkans being chained to bridges while Bosnian men were being marched in their hundreds and thousands to their graves they had been forced to dig themselves that turned me away from the EU forever.

    Tell me again, what is the difference between a safe haven and a safe area? You fucking bastards!

  6. All that is and has ever been good about Britain has come from the EU. Before the EU, we could neither trade nor govern ourselves, let alone assemble a task force. Therefore, with angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven, evermore praising Juncker and saying, we are unworthy, save us from ourselves.

  7. So Much For Subtlety

    Ironman – “Ironic all this really; it was the sight of EU peacekeepers in the Balkans being chained to bridges while Bosnian men were being marched in their hundreds and thousands to their graves they had been forced to dig themselves that turned me away from the EU forever.”

    It is ironic. Because they were afraid of people calling them thick racist pr!cks.

  8. The Meissen Bison

    BiW makes the point well. The EEC member states were less than helpful last time. The French were rather ambivalent in the matter of supplying Argentina with exocets and the Belgians memorably refused to lend us supplies of ordnance for fear of annoying nice General Galtieri. It fell to rather more distant and unlooked-for friends, like Sri Lanka, to express support fro Britain and the Falklanders.

    This FI Govt representative doesn’t know much about her Islands’ recent history.

  9. So Much For Subtlety

    Steve. – “But what about Gibraltar?”

    The Scots don’t want the submarines at Faslane. The obvious solution is to move them to Gibraltar.

  10. The French were rather ambivalent in the matter of supplying Argentina with exocets

    That’s an interesting use of the word “ambivalent”. They kept supplying them and kept supporting them. Their excuse was that they had signed a contract.

  11. Spanish friends are more fed up about Germans buying up entire towns in Spain proper than they are about the Rock.

  12. The Scots don’t want the submarines at Faslane.

    The SNP leadership don’t want the SSBNs at Faslane. Slight difference.

    Most Scots, even most SNP supporters, are keen on the jobs that the attack boats basing provides around the Helensburgh area.

  13. SE well I used the term because the French claimed also to be helpful to the British one way and another. I’m absolutely no expert on the ins and outs of this rather murky business but the salient point is that our European allies were not much use as allies then and never will be.

  14. If Spain isn’t interested, what about Putin. We should be worried about Putin, he will be looking at us very closely.

  15. So Much For Subtlety

    Steve. – “If Spain isn’t interested, what about Putin. We should be worried about Putin, he will be looking at us very closely.”

    Yes we should be so very worried about Putin. He might buy Sunderland.

    Steve. – “an if Gib wants to leave the UK after Brexit? Could the Spanish block the border again?”

    Invest in ice skates. Because if the people of Gibraltar have chosen to remain with Spain Hell has frozen over.

  16. SMFS

    It isn’t at all racist to be concerned about immigration. But you just are a Thick.Racist.Prick.

  17. So Spain would block the border with Gibraltar and thereby destroy access to one of the only job markets in the area. That would make sense.

  18. So Much For Subtlety

    Ironman – “It isn’t at all racist to be concerned about immigration. But you just are a Thick.Racist.Prick.”

    Be that as it may. The Dutch peacekeepers failed to protect the people of Bosnia in large part because people like you called them thick racist pr!cks.

    I can live with my conscience.

  19. Subtelty
    Gib might fancy life as an independent member of the EU – you can never have enough tax havens

  20. Gibralter: A monkey covered rock at the arse end of Spain. If the Spanish want it so badly, let them have it.

  21. SMFS

    “The Dutch peacekeepers failed to protect the people of Bosnia in large part because people like you called them thick racist pr!cks”

    Bollocks, just bollocks. And to be so happily writing such bollocks over the graves of thousands is a low point even for you.

    Fucking hell, you are barely human.

  22. I admit my ignorance of the details, but didn’t Britain enter the EEC in the ’70’s?

    You’ve been ‘part of the European Community’ since then. The Maastrict Treaty was mainly about the Euro and the common market – so its not like it would have made a difference to the Falkland War if it had been in effect a decade earlier.

    And its not like anyone thinks any of the military forces the EU actually controls would ever step into a fight against an opponent who might actually be able to hurt them, however slightly – much like the UN.

    Aaaaand, nobody else was all that interested in jumping in (on either side) in 1982.

    IMO, its far more likely that the EU would support *Argentina* in another fight instead of you guys.

  23. The main issue in 1982 was US support, which was considerable in various understated ways (they covered our NATO commitments in the North Atlantic for us, gave us a lot of useful J2, told the civilian ground crew at the US-owned facility at Ascension to be helpful Or Else…)

    Originally it was a State Department problem, and Jeanne Kirkpatrick and her deputy Tom Enders (Kirkpatrick was “more fool than fascist, while Enders is more fascist than fool” as the British Ambassador wrote at the time) had never met a Latin American military despot they didn’t love as a bastion against the evil Commies: so, the US was originally on the fence with Al Haig failing to broker a middle-ground peace.

    Supposedly, the game changer was when Caspar Weinberger went to see Reagan and pointed out that Argentina was a tin-pot shithole on the verge of collapse anyway that offered nothing of strategic value, while the UK was a NATO partner and a key player in any future game of Big Mistake 3 and having the British public decide that overseas wars were pointless pursuits and visiting forces were no longer welcome, would not assist in NATO’s efforts to stop the Warsaw Pact. After that, the taps were open in terms of US support.

    As an aside, I have a quiet respect for John Nott, who was told to make big cuts to Defence and did so by trimming all the legacy, out-of-area, Imperial-policing stuff he was assured was no longer needed in order to focus on stopping any Soviet invasion of Europe. When it turned out that out-of-area capability was actually rather useful, and his cuts had nearly put it beyond use, he actually did the honourable thing and fell on his sword, despite having a get-out card that he’d been very poorly advised: not the sort of behaviour we get these days, alas.

  24. I think all the Argies would need to do to disable any future Falklands Task Force would be to deploy ex pres Kirchner in full visibility at Stanley.

    All the Brits would be immediately turned to stone

  25. When Murph was banging on the other week about the EU having maintained peace in Europe someone, it might have been the legendary swordsman Rocco Siffredi, pointed out that the EU had failed entirely to do anything to stop, prevent, curtail or hinder the mass slaughter in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The Fatted Gammon of Downham Market pointed out that Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia etc were not in the EU at the time, as if that was a clinching argument. i suspect that Rocco got banned straighaway – probably because of the stooly.

  26. “If Spain isn’t interested, what about Putin. We should be worried about Putin, he will be looking at us very closely.”

    What exactly will Putin be looking for?

    Traditional Russian interests are keeping the Germans out. I would expect Putin to attempt to improve diplomatic relations with Britain if Brexit passes.

  27. @The Inimitable Steve – “Maybe the Bennies better start learning Spanish, then”

    You’re clearly out of touch as British Forces in the Falkland Islands and South Georgia are explicitly forbidden from referring to the Falkland Islanders as “Bennies”.

    They are now referred to as “Stills” as in “Still Bennies”.

    Squadie humour huh? Can’t live with them and can’t send them to their deaths in the South Atlantic. What a dilemma.

  28. The Meissen Bison

    Jason Lynch: …not the sort of behaviour we get these days, alas.

    Just so. Lord Carrington was a slightly earlier victim in the same saga to standards of personal probity now extinct among the political class.

  29. EU and the Falklands

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17256975

    ‘Overall, he added, the French did give Britain substantial help during the conflict.

    But, does he, nonetheless, now feel a little let down by a nation that he had previously described as Britain’s greatest ally? This was his response:

    “We asked Mitterrand not to give assistance to the Argentinians. If you’re asking me: ‘Are the French duplicitous people?’ the answer is: ‘Of course they are, and they always have been.'”‘

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