Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 296 posts

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#111

Post by tialaramex »

Maxatar wrote: post #42
rich_sasha wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without going into the sentiment of this, I suppose Chaos Islands are not part of the United Kingdom but rather an overseas territory, so more like "property", to put it bluntly. I guess the government can just give away a building it owns, and this is more analogous than giving away "territory". And there is no current indigenous population there either. But yeah, Jersey is also an overseas territory, can the govern…

The United Kingdom has parliamentary supremacy with little to no checks or balances, so if the parliament wants to give away something, there is nothing that can really stop them.

Indeed. The only practical constraints on parliament are the Laws of Nature, which unlike man's laws cannot be broken, and the will of the People, in defiance of which a Parliament necessarily would fall since the Parliament is constituted from those people.

If Parliament tried to ban booze (as the US Federal Government once did) that's probably not going to go well, and maybe they would (like the US government) be forced to undo that - but all they did here was give away something very few of their citizens likely even knew they had. I was surprised it made headlines.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#112

Post by SllX »

rich_sasha wrote: post #68
SllX wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jersey is a Crown Dependency, not an Overseas Territory. They share a King and the UK is responsible for their defense, but domestically Crown Dependencies are more independent of Parliament than your average British overseas territory.

Ok, fair point. Can the UK hand over Bermuda, or Cayman isles? I vaguely remember handing over the Falkland Islands to Argentina was actually on the cards before the invasion, so perhaps surprisingly the answer is "yes".

Yes. Parliament can. The people living there may not be particularly happy about it though, e.g. the entire population of the Falkland Islands save like the three people who voted in favor of linking up with Argentina that one time.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#114

Post by BurningFrog »

BobAliceInATree wrote: post #110
BurningFrog wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lease expires in 2123. The militarily strategic landscape then is pretty much unknowable. To a 1925 (99 years ago ) military force, the Diego Garcia airfield would have had zero importance.

in 99 years, most of the island probably will be underwater due to climate change.

The island is certainly in the risk zone, but I think that is also unknowable.

My guess is that by carbon sequestering and/or SO2 injection in the stratosphere, the climate change will be controllable within a few decades.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#118

Post by haberman »

aguaviva wrote: post #102
bpodgursky wrote: post #11

> African nations began to speak with one voice on the issue, pushing the UK hard on the issue of decolonialisation. I wish the journalists had a little more sophistication on this. African nations began to push the UK on this because China and Russia understand that Diego Garcia is a critical port, and made investment + aid/ bribery + weapons (China / Russia respectively) conditional on forcing the issue.

In other words: The African nations have no agency or legitimate motivations of their own, and are just doing what China and Russia bully them to do. Apparently they don't even appreciate the significance of the military base on those islands. It is left for the adults in the room (Russia and China) to think and operate on such a level. Of course no one here is naive, and we all know already that external operators h…

If the characterization is inaccurate, then say so. If not, this is just name calling and mind reading.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#119

Post by lucb1e »

Andaith wrote: post #116
rafram wrote: post #3

The British Indian Ocean Territory is probably better known in the tech world for its top-level domain: .io.

Ok now THAT is interesting. I always thought it was a tech-focused domain, for input/output. :)

The two-letter ones are all countries/regions/territories. See also .su for a blast (thankfully not literal) from the past https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.su

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#120

Post by Kognito »

eadmund wrote: post #117

Very sad for the United Kingdom, I think. Back in 1982 Queen Elizabeth II refused to give up the Falklands at gunpoint; in 2024 King Charles III gives up the British Indian Ocean Territory without even a shot being fired.

Queen Elizabeth II had no involvement in the decision to defend the Falklands, other than perhaps some private counsel with the then Prime Minister, just as King Charles III will have had no involvement in this decision.
Post reply on HN