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Ha, well played BBC! You mean the state broadcaster for the UK managed to avoid mentioning the Falklands in an article about disputed barren islands. I'm trul
by andy_ppp 11y ago
Ha, well played BBC! You mean the state broadcaster for the UK managed to avoid mentioning the Falklands in an article about disputed barren islands. I'm truly shocked!
- secfirstmd 11y ago3000 people live there...hardly barren
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- sofaofthedamned 11y agoCome on, Argentina has never given a toss about the place until they needed to ramp up the jingoism.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- rmc 11y agoOr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall
- creshal 11y ago> "More people have landed on the moon than have landed on Rockall." Charming place.
- smcl 11y agoMy word I knew it was remote and tough to access but I didn't know it was so overlooked. I remember The Reg launched a charity expedition (called "Rockall Ho!") there a decade back, however: http://m.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/22/rockall_triumph/ http://m.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/22/rockall_triumph/
- BellsOnSunday 11y agoNobody ever fought over Rockall.
- notahacker 11y agoAs an uninhabitable island with rival territorial claims from Denmark and Ireland mainly because the fishing rights are potentially worth something, it's a better comparison point than an island group which has been continuously occupied for nearly 200 years...
- arethuza 11y agoThe UK and Iceland did tussle over fishing rights in the North Atlantic - not an outright shooting war, but there were warships posted to protect UK trawlers and collisions between ships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars
- cmdkeen 11y agoIt's an islet not an island, which under UNCLOS is a really important distinction. Islands get an EEZ around them, islets don't. Rockall gets 12 nautical miles of territorial waters around it, but no EEZ. The distinction between islets and islands is the basis of what China is up to with the artificial islands it is constructing. UNCLOS is a really interesting thing to get stuck into if you are a legally inclined geek.
- MrJagil 11y agoSomeone stayed 45 days on Rockall like this: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/07/17/article-2696222-00033F7F00000258-761_634x394.jpg http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/07/17/article-2696222-00...
- danmaz74 11y agoThe Falklands aren't a barren islands.
- noir_lord 11y agoFalklands has 3000 or so people, a small town, lots of sheep and is not really disputed except when Argentina feels like distracting attention from whatever shitshow is going on at home. Even their historical claim is dubious as hell.
- easytiger 11y agoBest summation of the whole nonsense I;ve seen
- clamprecht 11y agoEvery national highway in Argentina has signs saying "Las Malvinas son Argentinas", meaning "The [Falklands] are Argentine". I think it's required by law.
- _lce0 11y agoThe importance of these islands is that it allows Britain to claim territorial access to Antarctica. For them, it was never about the people.
- gyardley 11y agoI was in the Falklands earlier this year, and the place acts more English than England. You'd have to deport everyone en masse to make it seem remotely Argentine. That doesn't stop the Argentinians from packing their cities with monuments and street names dedicated to the Malvinas Argentinas, and the islands (along with the brie wedge of their Antarctica claim) appear on every national map, right down to the ones on keychain fobs for tourists. That's got to do something to their collective psyche, whether it's saber-rattling season or not. Right now there's offshore oil exploration taking place in the Falklands - you could see tons of equipment near Stanley. If that comes back lucrative, I'd expect the dispute to heat up accordingly.
- noir_lord 11y ago> Right now there's offshore oil exploration taking place in the Falklands - you could see tons of equipment near Stanley. If that comes back lucrative, I'd expect the dispute to heat up accordingly. I don't think it's a co-incidence given that they think there is vast oil reserves around the Falklands that within a few years the UK will have two of the most powerful aircraft carriers in the world (outside of the US carriers) or that our Type-45 was designed to engage dozens of simultaneous air threats, the argentine military isn't even the threat it was in the early 80's, a British carrier battle group carrying F35's with MBDA Meteors (which are a more advanced but similar missile to American AMRAAMS with a variant having a 200 mile range) with a support group of Type-45's and nuclear subs would make it the most one sided naval battle since The Battle of the Nile in 1798. Any in-bound Argentine planes would be dead before they got within 300 miles of the Falklands from the F35's not to mention the Type 45's which is acknowledged as the most advanced air defense destroyer in the world at the moment. I lament that we spend so damn much on the things but within 5-10 years we'll have the 2nd most powerful blue water navy in the World (the question then is do we need that really...) Throw in that the British government has very effectively used political pressure to block all sales of modern aircraft to the Argentine government they'd be flying an obsolete 40 year old fighter against a state of the art 5th generation fighter, it wouldn't even be a war it'd be a damn blood bath, they can't even afford to run the planes they have now, those planes are a mix of 60's era French Mirages and upgraded vietnam era A4 Skyhawks.
- lmorris84 11y agoFalklands have around 3,000 people who actively WANT their home to be a British Overseas Territory. Argentina's claim to them holds about as much water as my claim to Buckingham Palace.