Jan 26 – Feetham Writes To Corbyn
The Leader of the Opposition has today written to the Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn about his comments that the UK should look for an “accommodation” with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.
Daniel Feetham said that “while the comment was not directed at Gibraltar it does have implications for us as it probably reflects his thinking on Gibraltar too”.
Mr Feetham said that the comments “betray very muddled and antiquated left wing view of the Overseas Territories generally and Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands in particular”.
He said: “It is based on the view that Britain’s Overseas Territories are a vestige of Britain’s imperial past and that the United Kingdom should, therefore, be rid of them. It takes no account of the fact that the people in these territories feel as British as anyone in the United Kingdom and that the United Kingdom has a responsibility to respect their wishes. Otherwise, the United Kingdom would be acting with the same colonial autocracy and disregard for the rights of people as the colonial powers did hundreds of years ago. This is the irony of people who think like Mr Corbyn; their views are as colonial as those of the days of empire which he instinctively so dislikes. There is only one principle that matters in these cases and that is the principle of self-determination. Anyone adhering to basic socialist principles of social and civil justice ought to understand that. It is not about the Falkland Islanders “have an enormous say” in any accommodation reached by the United Kingdom and Argentina as Mr Corbyn characterised it. It is about the Falkland Islanders having the right to choose their own future and no one else having the right to enter into any kind of process of negotiation about that future without their prior consent. Those are the commitments provided to Gibraltar by successive UK Governments and, as a democrat, he would do well to remember that.”
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