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UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

bbc.co.uk

171–180 of 296 posts

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

Parliament can for sure overrule the will of the people, and very often do. They might get punished in the next election or they may not. More precisely only the PM can call an election I believe.

> They might get punished in the next election or they may not.

If what they do is sufficiently contrary to the will of the people (or at least, those with weapons and the will to use them), they'll get punished sooner than that. Laws and constitutions are a useful abstraction but ultimately an imperfect one.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#174

Yeah... As long as the US and the UK is allowed to operate their military bases and operations without any protest or quibble for the next 100 years and probably more. Have some spare change instead of too much sovereignty. And remember the military bases are US and UK soil and whatever goes on there can keep going on whatever laws may or may not be passed. Just like how the US maintains a military base, camp (now no…

This. The US hegemon is everywhere it shouldn't be. And no one stands up. Well, we'll see what happens after UA.

After Ukraine a lot more countries, especially in there neighbourhood of Russia will ask Americans for their military bases.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#175
post #17

I'm a citizen of the Republic of Mauritius and, when this news was announced today, there was a general sense of relief. Mauritius has been fighting for its sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago (with Diego Garcia being the largest island) for 56 years. Today, the Chagos Archipelago is part of Mauritius again and a treaty will (hopefully) soon be signed between the UK and Mauritius. From there, Mauritius will sign…

> From there, Mauritius will sign a lease agreement of 99 years with the USA so that the military base there can continue to operate. Seems to be a lease with the UK (which then 'sub-leases' to the US?): * https://www.reuters.com/world/britain-agrees-chagos-island-s... Curious to know if there will be extension provisions: people think 99 years is a long time (which isn't wrong), but Hong Kong went back to China afte…

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Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> SO2 injection in the stratosphere

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Piercer#Plot

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It almost feels like China is involved in this because the number doesn't sound like something Mauritius would come up with on their own. See other 99 year leases the CCP is involved in, they're obsessed with this number Err 99 leases are common in lots of places. 99 years is a bit more than a lifetime so not many people care much about what happens afterwards. And it is a lot shorter than in perpetuity which would…

> In England during the sixteenth century it was common practice to make leases for a term of three lives or a period of 99 years. It is presumed to be upon the theory that the lease should last thru three generations as it has been common practice to accept thirty-three years as the span of a single generation. https://archive.org/details/longtermlandlea00mcmigoog/page/n...

So, 99 years is basically 3 Jesuses? Or 3J?

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#178
post #103
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is 71 and getting older. A lot of crazy things look more reasonable when you've had absolute power for a decade and aren't overly concerned about consequences in 20 years.

I think it's a mistake to give in to the temptation to jump to the conclusion that China is a tunnel-vision cult of personality everything-the-crazy-dictator-wants-he-gets government. The Chinese government under Xi has a well-established track record of long-term planning that has done nothing but elevated China's status and leverage in the world. It really couldn't be further from (e.g.) Putin's style of governance…

> elevated China's status

In 2024 china issued 17% less residence visas than 2019.

Maybe. But the trend is down.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#179
bad deal for Mauritius. they didn’t gain any sovereignty, they lost some. why? because now the foreign military base is officially on Maritius soil. so US now has a base in Mauritius just like they have in Japan and other places and those places can’t do anything about it
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