This memorial, in the shadows of the Tower of London (background) in Trinity Square Gardens, is "In Memory of those merchant seafarers who gave their lives to secure the freedom of the Falkland Islands." Photo credit: Wally Gobetz

The debate over the Falkland Islands rages on, after Argentina yesterday put pressure on the United Nations to hear its case for sovereignty over the disputed British Overseas Territory as Britain continued to drill for oil in the disputed waters of the South American continental shelf.

Simon Jenkins, writing in The Guardian yesterday, wrote that Argentina does make a strong case for ownership of the islands, and questioned Britain’s dismissal of both Argentina’s claim on the islands and of real diplomatic engagement with the now-democratic country. “The Falklands will remain an expensive nuisance to British diplomacy – and possibly trade – in Latin America, the more so after last week’s vocal support for Kirchner in Mexico,” he wrote. “Distant colonies are a post-imperial anachronism. Britain will have to negotiate with Argentina because the world, either at the UN or at The Hague, will insist on it.”

Grace Livingstone, also in The Guardian, agreed: “Is it not time for Britain to stop behaving like a 19th-century colonial power and heed the call of the United Nations to discuss the question of sovereignty with Argentina?”

For the most part, other papers – especially the tabloids, although certainly not exclusively – seem to take it without question that Britain is in fact the rightful owner of the Falklands and that the country even fought a bloody war to prove it. Hugo Rifkind, humor columnist for The Times, today called the idea that Argentina has a claim on the Falklands “downright stupid”, then wrote a bit of nonsense of about all the stuff Britain used to own, but gave back. “[W]e gave up on that sort of thing, quite famously, because the people who lived in all these places didn’t fancy it,” he wrote. Then he made fun of the Argentine accent.

The Times itself has adopted a surprisingly strident tone: “The Falkland Islands are British territory, inhabited by British citizens. Britain went to war in 1982 to secure those citizens’ freedom… If the Falklands islanders want to drill for oil, that is their right.”