The Earl of Chesterfield, on 24 May 2025 - 05:40 AM, said:
The Chagos Islands are another remnant of empire. Of colonialism. Of European expansion.
The UK took 'ownership' of them in the early nineteenth century after the French.
We retained a presence there, however pressure from a number of residents resulted in international courts deeming that presence illegal.
Those judgements were accepted by Boris Johnson's government, but in the style for which he's now renown they chose to spend millions of taxpayers' money ducking and dodging and denying rather than pursue a legitimate conclusion.
In fact it was Truss's short lived administration which began genuine negotiations to cede sovereignty, talks continued during Sunak's tenure and now being finalised by Starmer's.
The UK could adopt a Trumpian attitude. Totally ignore little things like morals or honour or the law. But instead an arrangement where we become rent paying tennants has been arrived at.
Of course Labour's opponents will sneer and jeee and smear as usual. They'll peddle mindless misinformation peppered with words like 'betrayal' or 'treachery' or 'woak' as they always do. Yet a more accurate headline might be 'UK bolsters global influence by securing long term base'. In the same way multi-billions is spent on, say, the Falklands.
Be interesting to see the reaction if a boat load of Chagossians turned up at Dover demanding asylum, too.
Hope that explains it...
The Chagos treachery goes deeper. He’s a deeper look.
Well done @pritipatel for picking up on this re. the Chagos scandal…
The day after Starmer and Lammy gave the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the Mauritian and Russian governments signed an agreement on agriculture, fisheries and “marine research”. There is absolutely now way that those two government negotiated and signed that agreement in one day. They’ve been cooking it up covertly between them for months, which, in itself, tells you it’s dodgy.
Given Starmer and Lammy have given Mauritius full sovereignty over “the land and territorial sea of Diego Garcia, including the seabed and subsoil… including fisheries… [and] the marine environment” this agreement with Russia potentially allows Russia access to the sea around the base on Diego Garcia, the very same base that Starmer told you he’d secured.
Below is a screenshot from Google maps of the island so that you can see just how vulnerable to Russian surveillance this vital base now is.
At best, Starmer and Lammy are guilty of stunning ineptitude, at worst, they’ve been deliberately aiding a foreign, hostile power.
Which is it Prime Minister?
There’s also the resource angle. Don’t try to tell me that the Russians won’t now start harvesting the fish and mineral resources in and under the 544,000 square kilometres of sea that were, until Starmer’s deal, ours. What environmental damage will that cause and what resources have we lost.
What with this and Starmer’s appalling deal with the EU, it’s impossible to believe that this government cares a jot about the UK and the interests of the British people.
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calvin plummers socks, on 24 May 2025 - 02:14 PM, said:
