The Dream of Unity

As the BBC calls the scheme for an alternative to the Organisation of American States, "free" not only of American, but also of Commonwealth, influence. That same BBC, in the course of the same reports, now talks about "Las Malvinas". Who will take up the baton of Jim Callaghan and Michael Foot against this pernicious tendency?

The Argentinians, of course, understand perfectly well that they could not have invaded the Falkland Islands without American approval in 1982 and that they could not do so today. Manifestly, they received that approval then. Who is to say that they would not receive it now? Ending British influence in the Americas is the permanent foreign policy aim of the United States, and is therefore a key motivation behind the OAS.

But the debate is now wide open. So, let it be joined in terms of the 10 sovereign states in the Americas that freely choose to be headed by the same person, who also heads a further six states of their free volition, one of which, with seven entirely voluntary Overseas Territories in the Americas, can also claim to be an American State in that sense. Another two voluntarily retain the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, among other very close social and cultural ties to Britain also shared by at least one more again. Such are the foundations of real, abiding alliances.

The dream of unity, indeed.