Those who fought in their twenties would be in their mid-sixties now – and there are quite a few thousand vets on both sides commemorating fallen comrades.

As you heard last episode, the ownership of the Falklands has been disputed for centuries although the islanders themselves are very clear who they are – they’re British. Through today’s podcast you’ll hear that at times, London was not so sure about that. What some forget is that the British government in the 1960s were close to doing a deal with the Argentinians to offload the Falklands at a time of great global pressure on the UK – specifically with regard to its many colonial dependencies and its stuttering economy. Both sides in the Falkland Malvinas dispute have very long memories. We heard how the Spanish had forced the French to hand ownership of Port Egmont on West Falklands back to the British in 1770. We also heard how the British left the Port having hammered a plaque on a door in 1773. 

 When we left off last, the British had returned to the Falklands with two warships the Tyne and Clio under the command of Captain James Onslow on the 2nd January 1833.

Argentinians all are also convinced that the Malvina’s belong to them, outrageously seized in 1833 by a distant European colonial power called England.

Across the Atlantic and an entire century and a half later, British Foreign Secretary Francis Pym was to announce in 1982 that Her Majesty’s government “…is not in any doubt about our title to the islands and we never have been …”

But did possession amount to nine-tenths of the law? 

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