The Chagos islands

[Penny Whistle]

I suspect there is already a thread on this, but I cannot find it. If there is one, please point me to it.

If not, my understanding is that the only claim Mauritius has on the Chagos Islands derives from the fact that that is where they were administered from back in colonial days. Assuming that the Chagossians want to return there and do not want to be governed by Mauritius (which I understand to be the case), is there no option to set the islands up as a British Protectorate? Or does that smack too much of Colonialism and is therefore abhorred ?

[jtremlett]

Largely covered under the Keir Starmer thread.

[Ridgemont]

jtremlett said:

Largely covered under the Keir Starmer thread.

That thread is, understandably, a hot mess.

It would be interesting to tease out exactly what is going on with Chagos without the other noise.

As I understand it currently Starmer has upped the ante to the Mauritius gov by offering an inflation index linked to the £90m per year that the UK is prepared to pay *for a territory Mauritius has absolutely no claim to* for 99 years.

I have been trying to wrap my head around this for so long and still can’t quite comprehend.

The Mauritius launched a spurious but non binding attempt in the UN calling for it to be returned.
Cameron to give him his due shot that down.
And strangely the conservatives with Cleverly and Truss revisited this farago.

I would dearly love to know what is propelling uk gov on both sides of the aisle to behave like absolute nitwits?

Apart from the ludicrous cost to the UK taxpayer of such a deal (£9bn and counting) what do we get out of it? As the Chagos is currently ours and the UN opinion is worth a ball of spit?

The US under trump are clearly concerned. I have no idea why our foreign office and gov are not. Would be interested to see genuine insight here as it seems to be beyond comprehension.

[hidetheelephants]

Penny Whistle said:

I suspect there is already a thread on this, but I cannot find it. If there is one, please point me to it.

If not, my understanding is that the only claim Mauritius has on the Chagos Islands derives from the fact that that is where they were administered from back in colonial days. Assuming that the Chagossians want to return there and do not want to be governed by Mauritius (which I understand to be the case), is there no option to set the islands up as a British Protectorate? Or does that smack too much of Colonialism and is therefore abhorred ?

The thread is here.