Don’t come for me, Argentina

If I were president of Argentina, I’d be baring my teeth in a mirthless, threatening smile. One slight push, or just a tacit threat of one, and the Falklands will again become Lousy Wine (I assume that’s what Malvinas means in Spanish).

The prime minister of Spain has a reason to smile too. If the mighty power of Mauritius could yesterday claim the Chagos Archipelago from Britain, then what’s Spain, chopped hígado? It’s time those upstart British residents of Gibraltar learned that word means liver in Spanish.

British overseas territories are up for grabs, a point Labour made crystal-clear yesterday. By ceding Chagos to Mauritius, 2,000 km away, Starmer has effectively delivered it to China that treats the island nation as its colony. And he did so while dispensing with the annoying inconvenience of a Commons debate.

Quite apart from any general considerations, the Archipelago’s largest island, Diego Garcia, is home to the joint UK-US military base. It’s a key strategic hub for Anglo-American operations in the Indo-Pacific region.

And not only there. Suffice it to say that US bombing raids on both Iraq and Afghanistan were launched from Diego Garcia. The base would also be critical for the allies to help out Israel in case of an all-out war with Iran.

We are retaining the use of the base for the next 99 years, but if the whole Archipelago is crawling with Chinese ‘advisers’, operating Diego Garcia will become logistically problematic – terminally so in case of China’s attack on Taiwan.

Chagos has been British since 1965. When Mauritius became independent in 1968, Britain paid the new state £3 million for the Archipelago, roughly the equivalent of £50 million today, which should have spelled the end of the matter in eternity. But it didn’t.

The International Court of Justice in 2019 and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in 2021 offered an advisory (meaning non-binding) opinion that Mauritius has a valid claim to the islands. Any responsible British government would have ignored that opinion, and in fact even the semi-responsible Tories did so.

Yet Starmer must be asking the same question when he wakes up every morning: “How can I harm Britain today?” Yesterday’s reply came in the shape of throwing away a vital British territory.

HMG claimed yesterday that the abject surrender reflects its “enduring commitment” to the rule of law. In fact, I can only repeat what Americans always say about the Panama Canal: we paid for it; it’s ours. Also, the rule of law in Britain means the rule of British law, not the rule of international bodies largely controlled by wicked regimes.

The most powerful such regime is Communist China, the key part of the new axis of evil also including Russia, Iran and North Korea. And, unlike their impatient, trigger-happy Russian vassals, the Chinese are pursuing a long-term strategy of subjugating the world.

They are systematically taking control of the Third World and making heavy inroads into the other two. The weapons the Chinese are using at the moment are mostly economic, with their colossal military build-up held back in reserve for the moment. But the Chinese keep dropping heavy hints that it’s still there, ready for use if some countries prove recalcitrant.

Their strategy is familiar to any chess player. If asked how a game can be won, most people will mention checkmate. But that’s not the case. In fact, the higher the players’ level, the rarer that outcome. Most games end when one side realises its position is hopeless because the opponent has gradually accumulated a decisive advantage. The player then resigns, stops his clock and the two shake hands.

China is playing a similar long game, except that there is no clock ticking away and no handshake awaits the losing side. What awaits is subjugation and tyranny. Thus, ceding strategic territory to that evil regime with global ambitions, which is effectively what Starmer has done, means emboldening it and others to go on an even wider foraging excursion.

It’s true that old-style socialists were at daggers drawn with communists – none so hostile as divergent exponents of the same creed. But Starmer’s socialism isn’t old-style, and the distance between Labour radicalism and Chinese communism has grown shorter. One difference is that the Chinese seem more committed to private enterprise.

There exist other differences as well, but it’s a fair bet that the Starmer-Corbyn lot don’t feel an intuitive revulsion at the sight of any communist regime. They may instead feel some emotional affinity for their Chinese comrades who remain just that, even if they overdo government by fiat.

Delivering some of our vital strategic industries, such as communications, to the Chinese is criminal negligence. The same goes for making territorial concessions to the Chinese or their allies. That’s sheer irresponsibility, or would be nothing but that if it weren’t overlaid with latent sympathy or at least the absence of principled rejection.

Such meekness also sends wrong signals to the likes of Argentina that has never accepted its 1982 defeat over the Falklands. Should the Argentines feel like having another go, it’s not immediately clear what Britain could do about it this time around. After all, our limp-wristed leaders have been steadily debauching Britain’s defence for decades – and Starmer may yet prove to be the worst of them all.

However, as things stand, even a leader combining the resolve of Churchill and Thatcher would find it impossible to put together a naval task force similar to that of 1982. Our two carriers, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth, set sail the other day for training exercises and equipment trials. Neither is fully battle-worthy, and neither has a full complement of planes. The first few F-35s arrived only a couple of days ago and will take time to bed down.

The only way of scaring the Argentines off is to communicate in no uncertain terms Britain’s commitment to defending the Falklands with overwhelming force, intercontinental if need be. But that kind of deterrent only ever works if the adversary takes such threats seriously. Delivering British territories piecemeal to evil regimes doesn’t exactly communicate single-mindedness of purpose.

One can only hope that Javier Milei, president of Argentina, is a secret Anglophile. He may be at that, but I’m sure Spain’s PM Sánchez isn’t.

Don’t know about you, but every morning I open the papers with trepidation. What else will Starmer do next? Raise taxes? Already done. Drive crowds of wealth generators out of Britain? Sorted. Leave our armed forces unable to protect us? Taken care of.

There don’t seem to be many new areas for our Labour government to explore. But I trust them implicitly: when it comes to hurting the country, this lot will always find a way.