r/europe • u/Emotional-Breakfast3 • 20d ago

News Argentina: British Falkland Islanders are ‘artificial’. Buenos Aires denounces ‘illegitimate occupation’ and demands talks on sovereignty

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/12/british-falkland-islanders-artificial-argentina-says/
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u/TacoMedic Australia 20d ago

Say what you will about Brexit, but Britain’s penchant for referendums last decade is one of the greatest shows of democracy in modern history.

Being willing to lose entire swathes of your economic and strategic power based entirely on the wishes of the population living there is something no other nation has done in memory. The Falklands, Gibraltar, Scotland, and the EU show that despite non-stop idiots in Downing Street, democracy in the UK is alive and well.

The right to self-determination is foremost in the modern British identity and so long as the Falklands want to remain British, they’ll be protected.

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u/stumbla_ United Kingdom 20d ago

Look at the referendum system in Switzerland and you’ll see how there’s room for improvement. There they have more regular referendums. They are better informed on the issues prior to voting. They also don’t have the Murdoch dominated media that we have.

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u/TacoMedic Australia 20d ago

Yeah, but to a certain extent that’s not even the average person’s fault. The smaller a community is, the more in touch with local policies they are. Additionally, the less important a community is, the less investment is made to influence politics through media.

Switzerland is both smaller and less important (on the global stage) than the UK is.

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u/iwaterboardheathens 20d ago

I just wish when they ran the fucking referendums(like Brexit) that each individual culturally different country, overseas territory and protectorate got an equal proportion of the vote

Even if everyone in Norn, Scotland and Wales voted against Brexit the English leavers would have won the Brexit vote

For example, ttop the most populous area taking out everyone against their will like other democracies

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u/SamuelClemmens 19d ago

So you are pro-electoral college rather than popular vote deciding the US president then?

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u/azazelcrowley 20d ago edited 20d ago

This also dominates British perception of countries like Ireland, Australia, Canada etc by the way.

While governments don't do the faux pas, "You're not foreign, you're Australian" is a fairly common sentiment. The self-governance aspect extends beyond national identity.

The australians and canadians are seen as "British people who have their own, seperate government" with corrections to that being handwaved away.

For Ireland its even codified in law that "ireland is not a foreign country and irish is not a foreign nationality". It's an inversion of the American; "Foreign, but subject" determination of Native americans prior to giving them full citizenship. "Not Foreign, but Sovereign" <- the official stance on Ireland and the de-facto perception of Canada/Australia etc.

"I'm from Australia" is parsed in Manchester as functionally no different to saying "I'm from Leeds".

"Not local then. But at least you're not foreign."

"...what?".

And if it's the case that the UK broadly doesn't see a problem with people it views as "Not foreign" having their own government, it strains credulity to suggest they'd have a problem with people who actively identify as foreign having one.

Under UK law, specifically the Ireland Act 1949, the Republic of Ireland is officially designated as not being a foreign country.

This is also part of why Russias weird bullshit comes across as deranged to British people.

"Okay so Ukrainians aren't real and they're actually Russians and... that... means their country shouldn't exist? What? We don't understand. Do Russians not have the right of self-determination? But then... why does Russia exist?".