We had no choice over HK, we only had the lease, India, much to the protestations of my best friends Indian wife, had to be handed back as it was costing an absolute fortunes, which we didn't have at the end of the war... Gib will never be relinquished and quite frankly it never should, the Spanish are complete hypocrites, its out of their control, screw them!

We are hanging on to the Falklands for two reasons, as well you know, firstly the people there are British, its their sovereign right to decide who they are part of and to almost a man they want to be part of Britain, Argentina has already made it quite clear that if they ever got it back they will throw the inhabitants out, they want revenge.... secondly is the most important, if the oil that sits off shore in the Falklands proves to be worth while it will make the UK more capable to stand on its own two feet with its energy needs... why do you think Argentina want it back? To free the Islands? To liberate the penguins? No, they want it back to own the oil reserves... fuck them, if they want another war, good... Most untrustworthy bunch of malingerers I have ever met, I've yet to meet an honest one and I have met literally thousands over the years....

Britain has a moral and legal duty to the people of Gibraltar (and Northern Ireland) because they want to remain British. In the unlikely event that either population wanted to secede I expect the British government would be very happy to let them do so. The Falklands have oil and a slice of Antarctica and are therefore a different kettle of fish. We only had a lease on Hong Kong until 1997. The rest of them wanted independence.

Amen to that.

Indeed! Gib is still very important strategically to UK, it gets right up the Spanish noses that we dock our nuclear subs there, but nought they can do about it. If the inhabitants of Gib and the Falklands wanted to break with UK that would be entirely different, but they obviously don't fancy becoming part of Spain or Argentina. Plus the fact that Gib annoys the hell out of the Spanish is an added bonus! I think it really annoys them that Gib prefers to be British. We gave them Menorca, what more do they want? Apart from Gib and Falklands, around 50 odd countries still want to keep some connection with UK via the Commonwealth, I can't think of anywhere around the world that Spain once ruled, especially Central/South America, that wants anything to do with Spain.

Didn't the British Government throw the entire population of Diego Garcia off the island... to then rent it to the Americans?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depopul...f_Diego_Garcia (Yes, apparently!)
If it was worth it to Whitehall, the Gibraltarians would be singing 'Cara al Sol' quick as look at 'em!

Its funny isn't it? Britain is always condemned for its Colonial past yet look at the hell the Spanish brought on the Indians of South America.... or the terror the Dutch East India company took to the East... for the most part, indiscriminate nutjobs aside, the British assimilated themselves into Colonies pretty quick, look at the amount of "native" wives they "took" in numerous colonies or the customs they adopted and that have now become so part of British life... The Spanish have more blood on their hands than the British ever could.

By the way, this is a statement of fact before any of you jump on me and start a UK vs Spain discussion!!!

Oil?

The fact that the vast majority of Spanish on Gibralter prefer it to remain in British hands speaks volumes methinks and must be a huge embarrassment to Spain as a whole.

Or less than 100 years ago, after the rifeños in North Africa decimated around 13,000 Spanish soldiers, the Spanish had the dubious honour of being the one of the first to use chemical weapons on civilians. La Batalla de Annual is an enlightening read.
I think it´s a case of " he who is without sin...", all of Europe has some past histories it won't be proud of, just been reading about Algerians killed in Paris not that long ago which was swept under the carpet.

I haven't really got reason to disagree with much of what has been said, especially about the Falklands, only, we don't have much of a foothold in South America and if the Argentineans decided to invade the islands again, I think we would be f'ucked.

We know from the last invasion that the US won't help us, Pinochet has gone, the EU won't come to our aid, militarily, and our armed forces are so stretched they probably couldn't launch a counter offensive, and then we have the cuts in defence expenditure.

Argentina is now a large and wealthy country, a long way from our shores. I suspect if we took them on again, we would lose.

(And we've got 13,000 of our soldiers deployed at the Olympics next year).

Dont you belive it, it would be over a lot quicker this time round.

Have a read of this from a poster on another forum:

The Argentinians can talk all they want, but they can't do anything.

Whilst our Armed Forces look different to how they did in 1982 we're still the 4th largest spender on Defence in the world and you still get something for your money.

In 1982 we had our eye off the ball. Equally, the senior military man on the Islands was a major. Now we have a Brigadier in Command. We have a military airfield, fast jets in place, a raft of radar and SIGINT and contingency plans up the ying yang.

We routinely have a nuclear sub in the area and we know what they can do to dago shipping. Whilst we have less ships they are immeasurably more capable; one of those new Frigate things (ships aren't my strong point) could apparently park next to the Falklands and track the entire Argentine airforce and shoot them all down as they left Argy airspace.

16 Bde has now returned to contingency as has 3 Cdo Bde, i.e. they are off the HERRICK treadmill and stood by for other taskings.

Argentina, meanwhile, no longer has an amphibious capability.

So, picture the scene. Int (our eye is now very much on the ball and the Yanks share with us) tells us they may be about to try something. A few more Typhoon fly down there. A BG or two from 16 Bde fly down (via ascension, which we own) to the in place military airfield and stand by to execute a number of conplans. We park a Frigate thingy there and have a few subs nose about.

They start coming. Our ISTAR picks them up. They get a warning. They ignore it. The sub begins sinking their ships. The Frigate thingy shoots down all of their aircraft. If, by some miracle, they get a few troops ashore they are met by an Afghan hardened, well equipped BG who have had time to prepare. Imagine fighting a dago Army who try to fight conventionally.

No UK government would ever not fight for the Falklands; it would be electoral suicide.

I almost hope they try.

Well we have no Carrier nor Harriers now, and it's funny they reckon that was what won it for us. They won't be able to win it with these this time round.

I bet the Argies learnt a lot too.

Argies learnt SFA, we dont need carriers or harriers to cane them,that was 30 years ago,mil technology has changed phenomenally , most of the whinging about carriers and harriers was press hype , read and digest my post again then verify it it you need to with google.

Well said Rotor. I assume this "other" site was Arrse?

Indeed.