it couldn't have been a clearer
statement from the Faulkland Islanders
um obviously nearly 100% of people voted
in favor Argentina should sit up take
note and back off well it's a bit like
the residents of nether Wallop voting
nearly unanimously nether Wallop may be
an imaginary Village of 1,600 people
which is the population that voted in
this uh referendum and it's like nether
wop's population voting nearly
unanimously against a High-Speed Rail
Link it's interesting but it cannot be
allowed to Trump the whole country's
National Economic and geopolitical so
their voice doesn't count and it should
be ignored it's uh interesting but it
cannot uh be a veto because by
definition if this is a British overseas
territory the sovereignty lies with us
not with them you can have an Antarctic
Ice Station declaring itself to be a
country and having a v over British
policy towards the Antarctic so what
I've argued here and Elsewhere for a
long time is that we should reach an
agreement with Argentina for joint
sovereignty over the territory the
people can remain British they can have
British passports full of British
Customs wear absurd Union Jack waste
coats and bow ties like the one on the
picture behind you they can continue all
of that it's a Gilbert and Sullivan Show
so far as I'm concerned but the actual
Waters and land must must be shared with
Argentina not least because if we don't
the day will come when we have no
sovereignty at all because we cannot
defend for all the Bluster of hugos you
don't think it's bankrupt country let's
just take the point though this idea of
shared sovereignty they can stay the the
Forkland Islanders as British as they
want and they want to but we have to be
practical about sovereignty this was the
idea of leaseback which is what the
foreign office was running hard with
before the fand's war in 1982 slightly
different version of George's where he
puts it um George I really don't think
you should patronize them in this way
you wouldn't patronize the people in the
western Western Isles storn away or sky
for being few in number and having views
I remember when the war erupted it
struck me as if it was the equivalent of
stor away being invaded by a military
Hunter with pronounced fascistic
Tendencies how could it be because
stornway lies a few miles off our the F
lies a few miles off Argentina's and
tens of thousands of kilometers from our
cour shouldn't poniz
comp Gilbert and Sullivan people it's
not worthy of you ge it is not worthy of
you to patronize these people a
Preposterous appendage of British
colonialism it lies off the coast of
Argentina tens of thousands of
kilometers from here we're a small
almost bankrupt country off the west
coast of Europe the idea that we're
going to war and going to uh uh allow
our uh relationships with the whole of
Latin America to be subject to veto of
1600
respect to use your own word to those
people that's all I ask this this we've
met before Hennessy George
Galloway Peter Hennessy let's let's
let's get back to the practicalities of
this because as I put to hug goar there
is a real issue that tensions May well
have escalated as a result of this that
actually rather than sort of
deactivating um Rel you know the
tensions between the two countries it's
made it worse well the tension is higher
now than it's ever been since the
immediate War and the immediate
aftermath there's no question about that
and indeed in the anniversary of the
150th anniversary it was very tense and
going back to the submarines uh Trafalga
class hunter killer submarine was
carefully put in the South African press
in simonstown on the way to the South
Atlantic as a deterrent so I in no way
diminish the seriousness of all this and
indeed leaseback was a serious proposal
and one of the fascinating things in the
evidence to the Franks inquiry that Mrs
thater gave unlike chilcott inquiry into
Iraq it was Private was Declassified in
January was that she said that if the
negotiations continued in New York and
got really serious and deadlocked and
had got very fraud she would have taken
it to the international court and tried
to negotiate through an arbitration
system it's very interesting and that
the the sovereignty question has been
there ever since the 1830s as as George
knows as well as I do but the I think it
was very important for the people of
this particular British overseas
territory to express themselves because
every every government has since 1982
and indeed before said the wishes of the
Islanders are Paramount and I agree with
that and it's a fundamental disagreement
with George but that just to just to
clarify of course the vote doesn't have
any credibility in terms of
international law doesn't have any any
sway in that sense no but in any open
Democratic Society if the people
concerned want to express themselves
through a referendum who are we to deny
and in a way George G I put to you has
the attitude that you've expressed also
just motivated the folkland Islanders to
go out and restate again in in such um
terms as they did in this vote rather
than opening channels for dialogue yes I
think it has increased the tension and I
think it has but that's your made
matters uh worse the United Nations has
asked us to negotiate the Latin American
countries as a block unanimously and by
the way Latin America is one of the few
happening places in the whole world
economically it's in our interest to
have good relations with them uh have uh
have blocked with Argentina con but
what's the connection apart from
geographical which I grant you is is
obviously a fairly strong point in favor
what else is there connecting the
Faulkland Islands to Argentina you look
at those pictures there's nothing
connecting no that's the people not the
territory well the people are important
well they are but we're talking about a
British territory so what matters above
all is what's in Britain's interest not
the interest of 1600 people it's the
point I'm trying to make you wouldn't
allow the high-speed real link to be
stopped by a near unanimous vote of a
small village in England through which
it was going to pass because you'd say
our bigger National interest lies in
building the railway right what about
this idea of survival as was put by the
ambassador to London I mean there is
there is a pragmatic view that says look
we have to sort this out that there has
to be some sort of shared sovereignty
for the Islanders to perhaps have a
better quality of life um to have better
connections between the they they can
keep going they've kept going since 1982
and indeed the runup to the war quite a
lot of our Forkland school children went
to Secondary School in Argentina there
were trade links and there were sea
links and so on and that was severed by
the war understandably and the aftermath
but those islands can be kept going
there's no question about it what about
George Galloway's point that actually
going to war just isn't really a
possibility no but there it is always a
possibility isn't it is it actually out
of the question in terms of capability
in terms of the deterrent capacity of
the aircraft on the island and the
presence of the hunter killer submarine
when it's needed down there that is
enough to prevent a rerun of
1982 George way thank you no I'm afraid
I'm going to have to stop a great pity
yes what a great pity but there you go
all great things have to end sometime