Falklanders have no nation to claim

Nations have a right to self-determination.

The Falkland Islanders, descendants of people planted as a consequence of colonial conquest, do not.

They declare themselves to be British, whatever that term means, particularly in this context.

As such, their principal loyalty is to the state to which they claim to belong.

Not being a nation in their own right they cannot reasonably claim the Falkland Islands as their homeland.

The present British government has declared its determination to defend both their right to remain British and to occupy the Falkland Islands.

Contrast this with its attitude towards the Chagos Islanders.

These are British subjects formerly living on territory accepted universally as their own homeland, territory acquired by Britain by conquest, along with its inhabitants.

Britain did not send an armada to defend the rights of the Chagos Islanders to continue living in their homeland.

Britain brutally evicted them and dumped them in another colony, which itself soon became independent.

I suggest we are in no position to criticise Argentina until we have sorted out our own attitudes towards imperialism.

Malcolm Parker

Westcliff-on-Sea