Most days on 18 Doughty Street we send someone out on the streets of Bloomsbury to record some Vox Pops with local people on a political issue of the day. Invariably we get some hilarious responses. Yesterday, we asked people for their memories of the Falklands War. Our interviewees did not let us down. This really is worth watching...
Let's just give em back as an anniversary present. I never saw the point of principle here, losing one life for the Falklns seems far too much, so the reality is just ludicrous.
ReplyDeleteThough it did get you Smith Square boys a bit horny, I imagine, to see 'Mother' in her tank. So many confusing feelings...
We went to protect British people, you arseholes.
ReplyDeleteNow you've been subsumed by a comfortable, politically correct, EUSSR, you wouldn't understand national responsibility. And how very ignorant all those interviewees were and how ugly their sarf London accents. And how amusing that you're all obsessing about your "Parliament" and your party leaders when it doesn't exist, in reality, any more. You can have your drinks on the terrace and your lunches with auctioning off a bottle of whisky -- I once went to the wrong luncheon - drinks on the terrace, chatting to everyone, lunch, speaker, auctioning and only realised after I'd left, "Oh, wait a minute, I was at the wrong luncheon".
And why were those two people so trendily up a tree - if being up a tree is trendy in London these days? Oh, no! Was it rag week? Was it fixed as a trendy interview? Why would sitting on a tree branch be trendy for anyone but a gorilla or an urang-utan? Why ask those people who happened, coincidentally, to be straddled on a tree branch, for their thoughts on the Falklands while ignoring all those potential interviews striding around the pavements at eye level? Were they supposed to be representative of the other 60,999,998 people who weren't straddled on a tree branch?
This whole, sneering leftist agenda has taken over Britain, but then, I think Britain has been yearning for it for a hundred years.
You know what? No one who got out ever goes back.
Blimey Verity! I think I broadly agree with your sentiments, but leave off about South London Accents - quite what that had to do with anything I don't know. Interesting experiment though. Where was that recorded? Must be the place in London where all the Question Time audiences live. So many ignorant people and some arrogant - that awful arrogant bloke calling it the Malvinas War. Some people enjoy being confontational - I bet he wouldn't have said that to Simon Weston in person. The two things that hit me were how stupid most people were, the rest ever so mildly camp. The chap remembering 'dressing up as a CND woman and not letting anyone in the classroom' and the former shepherd! Unbelievable. In my view it was a war of principle and many people were killed and wounded on both sides. I couldn't believe how shallow these people's views were. However I've long held the view that I wouldn't, nor would I let my children, fight for this country - there's nothing to fight for anymore. You'd have got more reaction and in depth analysis if you mentioned 'Big Brother' or some equally dumb TV programme. Shame really.
ReplyDeleteVerity, you are such a repellent old bat. "ugly sarf London accents". You simply can't stop with the personal abuse, yet scream blue murder when anyone ventures a similiar comment about you. Thank God you have left the country. Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out, as your beloved Americans say, and don't come back.
ReplyDeleteYour most sycophantic thing of all was to say you would rejoin the party if Iain led it, when he fortunately stands against 90% of what you rant about.
Hmmm, bloke calling it "Malvinas" - what an arrogant self-loather he appears to be. More bigoted than the upper-class landed gentry without the land or the class.
ReplyDeleteMust work for the BBC over at Portland Place.
Nice to see one kid was actually taught some history though. He stands a chance of not repeating past mistakes unlike most of the others interviewed.
"Malvinas"
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many British people it would take to be invaded by a fascist dictatorship before you felt it worth intervening to uphold the right of self-determination?
5,000, 10,000, 25,000, 100,000??
Self-loathing, "if he's not British he must be right" immoral people like you make me sick.
You're hypocritical, unprincipled scum.
Get lost.
"I never saw the point of principle here"
ReplyDeleteFortunately the rest of the country did.
Methinks this is a windup comment that is best ignored.
Hope you got the permission of these people to let you try and humiliate them on your *blog*, Iain.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot, the usual rules don't apply to you, do they?
Nothing to do with the Falklands, but I've just been sitting in a traffic jam listening to Prezza's dining chum Rosie Winterton explaining to Edward Stirton on Today why it was such a good thing that an NHS dental practice in South London today has 7 dentists out of 8 on enforced holiday because they are not allowed to treat any more people even though they have a list a mile long. If you want to know why NuLab are going to get the hiding of their lives when the general election comes listen to it on the replay facility.
ReplyDeleteIt's Stourton not Stirton
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall the Argies got a lot of support from Spain on that occasion. I wonder what Tone and Des would do if Spain decided to invade Gibralter tomorrow? Or even if the Argies decided to try again next week?
ReplyDeleteI had that Verity in the back of my mosque the other day.
ReplyDeleteGlad you spotted it. I must do better.
ReplyDeleteYesterday's wars are today's chip wrappings.
ReplyDeleteHow long will it be before Iraq wars 1 and 2, (Iran next?), Afghanistan, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, and so on are similarly forgotten? And what about Korea?
All of this important history should be central to 'education, education, education'. But what we have witnessed is 're-education' on a breathtaking and cynical scale.
Who's the presenter?
ReplyDeleteOne thing we can all agree on: our loathing for the Malvinas man and our conviction that he MUST work for the BBC. Or possibly the Grauniad. Or possibly the Independent.
ReplyDeleteWish I hadn't watched the film. It made me angry. But anyway, I'm happy to see we are not yet a classless society. The kid with the history has "class"!
ReplyDeleteIf that really is a cross-section of British opinion, then we are ****ed.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing promptly to stand firm for points of principle even on small issues, to avoid having to stand for them later on large ones. Thats why the snide "bits of rock" comments are off-target. Remember the Sudetenland, guys? There was nothing worth fighting for there, was there? But ceding it led inexorably to megadeath, including Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Auschwitz and Belsen.
It also led to one of my grandfathers living his life as a cripple and another missing his daughter growing up you ****s.
Cowardice kills more than courage. Unfortunately, not usually the cowards, which is why it remains so popular.
What I remember was being concerned every day for the welfare of our troops, and being proud of them for doing what was right in the teeth of sneering degenerates like the ones in the film.
No-one seemed to remember HMS Sheffield. I was watching the news in a TV room in Cambridge with a bunch of Argentinian students who cheered. At least they knew what patriotism was.
Years later an officer who had lost men from his unit on those "bits of rock" told me all about it over dinner. You could tell, even through his calm, understated account, that he was still suffering for it and feeling responsible for them.
Give me a nation of men like that, not the unprincipled, uncaring socialist scum in your movie and among your commenters; still playing politics with the lives of our soldiers after all these years.
As I understand it, under international law Argentina has a stronger claim to the Malvinas than Britain to what it likes to refer to as the Falklands.
ReplyDeleteVery good. I remember Brian Hanrahan saying: "I counted them all out and I counted them all in" and the new word: "Yomping" and Max Hastings triumhant arival in Port Stanley.
ReplyDeleteAnd I remember the French helping us out. They'd sold some Exocets to Argentina that were far superior to the second rate missiles we'd bought from the USA, so the French told us all about the Exocets and how to counter them. ... I think that's right?
ReplyDeleteThat's *triumphant arrival*, idiot.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's 'I counted them all out and I counted them all back', for Christ's sake.
ReplyDeleteI remember the blind panic the Government were in when they realised because of the MOD bean counters had withdrawn the Icebreaker 'Shackleton' which meant we had nothing in the area that showed we were in the slightest bit interested in the defence of the Falklands. The scratch force that was put together, with some ships not sea worthy or still undergoing repairs, despite the bean counters insisting on the cheapest materials that burnt, producing clouds of acrid smoke, lack of air defence missles and AA guns because of cost cutting. Yet despite this the Navy got the task force there, we could not replicate this exercise again, due to ongoing cuts. I remember the sheer professionalism of the paras,marines,guards,and Gurkas, with other arms baling the politicians out of a hole they had dug themselves for. I have no doubt the armed forces are still the professionals and the politicians are still bumbling around making short term decisions. The downside of the Falklands is the belief by some Prime Ministers that being a war leader is a prerequisite of legacy. Sometimes it is neccessary to make a stand, but from then on in its down to the professionals to work out the mission,AND extraction
ReplyDelete"As I understand it, under international law Argentina has a stronger claim to the Malvinas than Britain to what it likes to refer to as the Falklands."
ReplyDeleteTry telling that to the inhabitants. If what you say is true then international law is severely flawed.
jailhouselawyer, I really don't think they do have a better claim.
ReplyDeletePiss off Jailhouselawyer. You are universally detested on every blog on which you post your bullshit.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a grudge against society, just because it gave you a life sentence, and you never let an opportunity slip to drop a snide comment. Or insult the bloghost.
Now piss off.
I am pretty sure the icebreaker was HMS Endurance. What I also remember was the dignified and principled resignation of Lord Carrington - something you would not see from a Labour minister.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Pebble Island raid to destroy Pukara aircraft and the loss of 20 special forces troops in a helicopter ditching between ships, blamed on an albatross.
Sadly none of the parties seem to have remembered or even learned the lessons of the Falklands and the need to have adequate logistics, equipment and support for our troops. It is only the character of our forces that set them apart from those of other nations. The MoD and successive governments have let our military down very badly.
Nadders: "Otherwise, beating the crap out of the Argie forces, sure put an end to military dictatorships in South America - surely the trots can support that"
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, they can't. That would mean supporting Britain, the British state and a British overseas terrority, which they can't bring themselves to do.
Their whole agenda revolves around undermining the British state and constitution so it's sufficiently weakened for them to take over. They are unprincipled, detestable scum. They don't care about right or wrong, only their own agenda.
On other matters, I wouldn't worry about what British people think about the Falklands. Nationwide, I think you'd find 60%+ thought it was the right thing to do and helped make the world safe for democracy.
Unfortunately, London is full of left-wing (I refuse to call them "liberals") pompous prigs who are more interested in maintaining their feeling of moral self-righteousness and social superiority than supporting "the right thing".
What I've never understood was why it was such a piddly war. Should have sunk every Argie boat that you could put more than 2 people in and given Buenos Ares a review of what Duke Harris of Bavaria used to do.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long slide since WWII, and even that was concluded badly, thans to all of the communists that had subverted the UK and the US. On that note, what will Bliar do for the boys in Tehran? Hopefully more than Dhimmi Carter. Give the mullahs 3 days before they get a live test of Trident!
SLBM, when you absolutely, positively, have to annihilate the enemy in 2 hours.
Unfortunately, London is full of left-wing (I refuse to call them "liberals") pompous prigs who are more interested in maintaining their feeling of moral self-righteousness and social superiority than supporting "the right thing".
ReplyDeleteYou mean "the right wing", don't you, Vulva? Freudian slip. Does making a tit of yourself help when someone challenges your closed mind? Keep it up.
Fascinating! Was that a random collection of people in a typical English street? If so, heaven help us!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the Falklanders freely chose to identify as British dependents imposed on us the duty to preserve their freedom and their right to do so. That duty may be seen as burdensome and unwelcome by whey-faced Whitehall pettifoggers and their political glovepuppets, but a declaration of 'Civis Britanicus Sum' shouted from the farthest corner of the world must if necessary mobilise the entire resources of the nation to answer.
ReplyDeleteThe quiet, secretive disposal of the Falklands planned by the Foreign Office was correctly understood by Argentina. What the Argentines did not understand was the tsunami of popular fury in the UK that followed. I am very proud to be part of a nation that responded so.
Yet the lessons of 25 years ago have still not been fully learned; the FCOs attempts to wriggle away from Gibraltar against the wishes of her people, and our utterly shameful treatment of the Chagos Islanders both testify that Whitehall's potential for the betrayal of our fellows remains intact.
The latest episode in this saga of indifference is FCO Minister Lord Triesman's despicable volte-face on Ascension Island; Ascension was critical to our success 25 years ago, and remains indispensible for our continued defence of the Falklands. Ascension islanders are seeking the basic rights that will allow them to form a stable community on that island loyal to Britain; the rights of property ownership, of democracy and political representation. These have recently been denied them, after having been promised.
Sometimes, as with poor Byng, we really ought to shoot the ocassional FCO mandarin pour encourager les autres.
Tony.. Re: Resignations
ReplyDeleteI think Robin Cook's resignation rather blows your argument out of the water (but not in a war-crime way like the Belgrano).
11:51 Calm down..
ReplyDelete"You mean "the right wing", don't you, Vulva? Freudian slip. Does making a tit of yourself help when someone challenges your closed mind? Keep it up. "
No, I *did* mean "the right thing". The right wing isn't synonymous with the right thing you prat.
Try re-reading my post again and engaging your brain Jailhouselawyer.
(look who's the tit now)
You got a right couple of lefties there Iain - that prat in the "tosser glasses" and the one in the helmet presumably meant to stop him hurting his head when he fits...
ReplyDeleteThe cute lad up the tree wouldn't have been born in 1984...
The tramp should run for Parliament.
The kid did not know his history as he said, "England went to war" No Britain went to war. Alex Salmond must find people like nthis manna from heaven
ReplyDeleteWhat possible justification can there be for the Falklands to remain British, other than Imperial aggression?
ReplyDeleteGive em back, or give Argentina the Isle of Man. Actually, they've suffered enough.
The guy in the Abbey yesterday was right, this country has never come close to admitting to itself the damage it has done around the world.
I don't blame the solider, they go where they're told. This was a shameful war for the Conservatives, just as Iraq has been a shameful war for Labour.
But to the rest of the world, these are just the latest chapters in Britain's roll-call of arrogance, violence and hypocrisy for which it should beg the forgiveness of the world.
The blame for the Falklands dead and injured lies squarely with Thatcher, we are the historic aggressor, and she needed a poll boost.
11.31 writes: Their [the stalinoid socialists] whole agenda revolves around undermining the British state and constitution so it's sufficiently weakened for them to take over. They are unprincipled, detestable scum. They don't care about right or wrong, only their own agenda.'.
ReplyDeleteAnd, frighteningly, they are embedded into the Labour party at national grass roots and, in London, executive level. Kinnock was a failure at getting rid of entryism and delusional leftism, they learned to stop mouthing off in public, that's all.
Brown is their candidate and they are the disciplined cadres who are determined to deliver the Labour leadership, and the office of prime minister, into his statist, bogey-covered, hands.
How depressing
ReplyDeleteI wish it was me holding the microphone, when that smug twat called the faklands "las malvinas"
I would have honestly smacked the fucker right in the mouth for disrespecting the 258 british service men who gave their lives to prevent other brits having to live under a south american fascist junta.
Also depressing was just how dull , stupid and ignorant the other people were , the only one with any brains was the little ginger haired kid.
And JHL your opinions count for nothing , you were rightly rotting in jail for the cowardly murder of a defenceless old lady as gallant young men gave their lives for the sake of others.
Crawl back under your stone.
Bloody hell. The ignorance of most of the interviewees is one thing. Unless they are actively trolling, the ignorance of some of the commentators is of another ilk entirely.
ReplyDeleteInglorious Dead - the sole reason for the Falklands remaining a British dependent territory is that the Falkland Islanders wish it so (under their rights enshrined under Article 1 of the UN Charter.) There are no displaced natives for us to have moral qualms about.
If the islanders decide that they should be Argentinian, then so be it. In the mean time, let us not forget that Galtieri led an extremely unpleasant dictatorship that, through the ineptitude of the FCO, believed that we wouldn't react to his unprovoked invasion of the Falklands.
S-E
Surreptitious Evil - Yes, Galtieri was a dictator, but Trots have a soft spot for some dictators. Any dictator who acts against Britain is, by definition, a freedom fighter.
ReplyDeleteRanter - sarf London accent is the ugliest accent in Britain, and yes, I include Brum and Liverpool in that. That yobbish whine makes me want to strike the speaker across the face with a wet fish.
Fed Up With The Hypocrisy writes, in the moderate tone of a Paris "youth" burning cars, "You simply can't stop with the personal abuse, yet scream blue murder when anyone ventures a similiar comment about you." A similar comment to what, darling? You didn't give any examples. But one thing for sure is, I don't scream blue murder under any circumstances, preferring the quiet precision of the scalpel, personally.
"Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out, How pathetic. So eager to use an Americanism. As I left several years ago, it's pointless, too.
"Your most sycophantic thing of all was to say you would rejoin the party if Iain led it," How is that sycophantic, given that Iain is not in a position to do me any favours or offer me any personal preferment, you vacuous little twerpy thing. I would rejoin the party even faster if Patrick Mercer were leading it.
More vulgar Than A Vulcan's Vulva said, "Piss off Jailhouse Lawyer". Seconded.
I still haven't got over how Maggie devalued the Victoria Cross during the Malvinas campaign, distributing them like confetti. For example, Colonel H got one just for sticking his head up above the trench and getting it shot off.
ReplyDeleteMost days on 18 Doughty Street we send someone out on the streets of Bloomsbury to record some Vox Pops with local people...
ReplyDeleteThere is a world outside WC1! Buy the film crew an Oyster card.
I'd be hard pressed to think of a better reason to go to war than having our nation's territory invaded, our Marines imprisoned and our people brutalised.
ReplyDeleteScotland dosn't look too different to the Falklands, a lot of empty windswept hills and all that, would it be 'pointless' to defend her is she were invaded?
Every man (and woman) of them that willingly went to war is a hero, and they deserve nothing less than our humble and heartfelt gratitude. Public flogging followed by deportation to Iran for any who'd insult their efforts.
JHL - Until now I have ignored you because your views don't count for anything in civilised society. But your comment about Lt Col H. Jones (I note you couldn't be bothered to type out his surname) is too far.
ReplyDeleteAs for devaluing the Victoria Cross by distributing them like confetti, what nonsense. Only two were awarded, both postumously (the other to Sgt Ian McKay) and both were richly deserved.
You are not fit to lick the boots of any one of the soldiers, sailors or airmen who fought in that war.
astroturf lawnmower: That's not a civilised society your link is a fantasy, a world of fantasy you live in.
ReplyDeleteJHL: For some reason I took the time to read and re-read your post a dozen times, wasting part of my life I will never get back, in a vain effort to work out what on Earth you're on about.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you check back in to your cell (prisons are so much like hotels these days that I assume 'check in' is the correct term) and take your illiterate, ill-informed, vile and unwelcome views with you.
ADDRESS BY THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC TO THE UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON DECOLONIZATION
ReplyDeleteNew York, June 18 2004
"On January 3, 1833, British forces expelled the Argentine inhabitants and authorities established on the Malvinas Islands and began their illegal occupation, configuring a special colonial situation unlike any other. This is reflected by numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and of this Committee".
Here endeth the lesson.
What with JHL and Tim Ireland, this blog is becoming almost unbearable. Can't understand why people want to go around blogs being aggressive and unpleasant. That goes for Verity too.
ReplyDeleteBeing right isn't being aggressive just because the truth hurts.
ReplyDeleteNobody is right all the time JHL - even you - and you are aggressive at times, in blogs as well as in real life (remember?). I just hope that other bloggers/commentators aren't as aggressive in real life as you are/ have been.
ReplyDeleteI'm a hard hitter, as the Director General of the Prison Service has referred to me. Nobody's right all the time. However, I am right on this and have stated my case.
ReplyDeleteEven for Bloomsbury (an area I know fairly well) the couldn't-care-less ignorance was disgusting. Admittedly they did interview predominantly younger people (why?). Is this the extent of what these idiots know about everything else?
ReplyDeletepedant 8:44am
yes, I've been doing some listening around my NuLabchums, and the NHS has done for NuLab, hook, line and sinker. They're all suffering.
I never go to my GP if I can possibly avoid it, but I moved house recently, and went this week (taxpayer for 37 years) to register with a GP, filled in the forms. As the receptionist kindly told me: 'You have to...You have to...You have to...We won't...They won't...You'll need to....and you must...Otherwise we can't...'
So - bit like Butlins then.
Receptionist (She Who Must Be Obeyed):
'Until yuh've seen the nurse fr'a (10 min) screening you can't be registe'd. We've five nurses.'
The five nurses were available for appointment at 9.20am one day a week only. 'But I'm at work at 9.20' - 'Too bad. We can't register you.'
Of course, I begin to realise - the 'service' is for women, mums n' chavs n' local council bods who can skive off work because they've 'gotta to go th'orspitl'.
---------------------
Should-Know-Better - you naughty, naughty, naughty boy: I've already ordered the Doughty Street presenter thru' Ocado's RentaPresenta Home Delivery.
Aaagh shut up wrote: "What with JHL and Tim Ireland, this blog is becoming almost unbearable."
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
Aaagh Shut Up also adds my name. I am not a murderer. I'm not a spamming prick. Aaagh Shut Up, I would suggest that besides the crappy axe-murder of an old lady while her back was turned to him, and Tim Ireland, boredom on stilts, you add your own name.
You're inadequate and belong in that company. Drab, angry failures. Shit House Lawyer, the axe-murderer, who is hoping to get a guest spot on Iain Dale's Diary to talk authoritatively about axe murdering - oops! votes for turkeys - and Tim Ireland, who is apparently someone people know on the blogosphere. All the Z-list celebs, eh?
Include me out. Who is Tim Ireland by the way, and why is he infesting Iain's blog?
Nuke'em until they glow and shoot em in the dark! Should have been waht we did to Buenos and everything more than 15 people in Argie. Bliar should give Tehran 3 days and then nuke EVERYTHING between Iraq and Pakistan. Time for people to learn what happens to the enemies of the Queen. If Bliar wqon't do it, time for Lizzie to lop off a few heads for treason until we get someone who will defend the interests of the realm!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone criticises verity on this blog a thousand swords should leap from their scabbards.
ReplyDeleteVerity: It is you that is unbearable with your drivel dripping like sewer water from a pipe.
ReplyDeleteWell I am not going to argue with Jailhouselawyer, after all might get axed to death.
ReplyDeleteThat said he is wrong on all points, the war was right and is still right, the Falklands always have been ours and always will be.
As for that pointless tool in the video calling them "las malvinas", bet that arese reads The Guardian.
Oh sinking the Belgrano was a brilliant move, the Argentine navy stayed in port after that, oh and had the Argentine escort ships not fled like cowards they could have rescued a lot of the men who died.
well I remember:
ReplyDeleteCoventry
Sheffield
Arrow (I think ?)
Atlantic Conveyor
Tumbledown
Goose Green
Sharkey Ward & Sea Harriers
Sidewinder 9L
Vulcan Raid
Welsh Guards
Gurkas
Marines & the Paras, SAS and SBS
Super Etendards & Exocets
Yomping
Conscripts
Red & Green life machine
Hermes Invincible
Welcome Home
a nation is only as strong as those who defend it
anyone who thinks the Belgrano sinking was a war crime has
a) not done their research
b) takes their talking points from the liberal left media as its so much easier than doing their own orginal thinking
I'm glad so many people have it in for that pointless tool who called them "the Malvinas".
ReplyDeleteI wanted to hit him with a shovel.
Actually I will argue with him, having read his site the murderer shows no remorse for his actions, indeed everything appears to be someone elses fault.
ReplyDeleteAs for his attacks on Verity well his comments show his own lack of understanding.
Malvinas Argentinas, Jibraltar Español, Esequibo Venezolano
ReplyDeleteAll,
ReplyDeleteif any of you wish to discuss this in person, I will be in Sheffield with the remainder of the surviving ships company, of the weekend of May 4 - 6 for the memorial service. The widows and fatherless children will also be there if you feel the need to air your views for them too.
I fully respect your rights to air your points of view on this site. However, please bear in mind why you have the right to say your piece without fear of let nor hindrance. It is because of the sacrifice of those who gone before you, and given THEIR lives for YOUR opinions. None of us who fought in 1982 have any qualms about being sent - we were all volunteers who accepted the Queen's shilling and all that went with it.
Had it not been for those 30,000 men and women [and boys - I was 17, Private Jason Burt (3 Para) was 17 when killed on Mt Longdon, Private Neil Grose (3 Para) was killed on his 18th birthday, as was Seaman Matt Stuart (HMS Argonaut)] then the people of the islands would now live in fear and repression, as would the people of Argentina.
If it were not for our Grandfathers we would all have been born with jackboots on.
In 2002 I went and met the two Argentine pilots that sank the ship I was on, have any of you asked any of the Argentine veterans of their opinion of their own govt at the time? I have - makes an interesting point of view. Irrespective of the horrific events of May 1982, we were right to send the Task Force and with the benefit of hindsight, I would go again.
Any of you are free to respond with any comments you wish, but I will not be entering into an e-mail war with any of you, I feel I have had my share of those.
As a correction to one posting on here regarding the sinking of the Belgrano, her two escort vessels did not flee but tried their hardest to rescue as many of the survivors as possible. The decision to sink her was still correct.
Adam (Joe) Lawton
ex-Junior Seaman
HMS Sheffield 1982
I too will be at the 25th Anniversary in Sheffield, if you want to share how you feel, with the people who were really there, be there and face us, and we will will answer your questions face to face.
ReplyDeletePercy (chris) Purcell, HMS Sheffield D80 1982
The Argentineans have long claimed the islands as their own, but they were discovered by an Englishman, Captain John Davis in the ship Desire, in August 1592. The first recorded landing was made in 1690 by another English sailor, Captain John Strong, who named the channel dividing the two main islands ‘Falkland Sound' after Viscount Falkland, the Royal Navy’s treasurer.
ReplyDeleteThe British took formal possession of the islands for the Crown in 1765 – fully 51 years before Argentina even existed – and, although there was some to-ing and fro-ing with the French and Spanish governments over the next few decades, they were never relinquished.
I was a member of 407 Troop RCT (JHSU)during Op Corporate, while not front line fighting I remember sights, sounds and smells that 25 years later still disturb me. War is the almost the biggest abomination that has ever struck this planet. Death and mutilation is not something that you can ever forget.
ReplyDeleteThat said -
We had to go and fight to retake the Falklands, oppression never be allowed to prosper, the removal of the rights for Human beings to decide their own destiny is the one thing that is worse than war.
The Falklands had a price, at the time when so many died and were wounded, and since. Nights and sleep still hold a special fear for me, the one time when I have no control of my memories. But I am and will always be convinced that the price was worth paying