Thirty Years On

It had been Jim Callaghan who had positively prevented an invasion of the Falkland Islands. But when Margaret Thatcher's incompetence brought one on, the Royal Navy had to stage a sort of coup for the duration of hostilities, or else the hopelessly out-of-her-depth Prime Minister would have ensured that those Islands were Argentine to this day. Until they had been invaded, she had not even known where they were.

This seems to have been perfectly well understood at the time, since, far from experiencing a "Falklands bounce", the Conservative Party took fewer actual votes in 1983 than it had done in 1979, and far fewer than the two Opposition formations combined, both of which had in any case supported the war.

Argentina overplayed her hand in 1982, which is why there will never now be the deal that there otherwise would have been before 1990. However, David Cameron has promised her a share of the oil revenue without any concession on the question of sovereignty. The previous Labour Government strongly condemned that promise by the Heir to Blair, but his Blairite media bodyguard killed off what ought to have been, and ought still to be, that enormous story.

This Government is at least building the airport on Saint Helena, which is essential to the defence of the Falkland Islands, which are in turn essential to the defence of the United Kingdom, there being no deep sea harbour at either Saint Helena or Ascension Island from which to cut off the North Atlantic if need be.

As for the Americans, of course the republic founded to banish British influence from the Americas supported Argentina very actively in 1982, and of course she would do so again. That was and would be as predictable as the strong French, Portuguese and Norwegian support for Britain. Any relocation of the American experiment within a deeper and wider British tradition such as Burkeanism would have to be extremely critical of the Founding Fathers, at least as much so as anything produced by, for example, Marxists or Black Nationalists has been.