Argentina renews Falklands claim
Pinochet's great friend stayed largely silent as she remembered the Falklands war. A war that saved her Premiership. Lady Thatcher allowed the wreath she laid do the talking for her, a wreath remembering the 255 Britons who died in a war that also claimed the lives of 655 Argentines and three islanders.
A war for a group of islands that most Brits did not even realise Britain claimed as hers until Argentina invaded them.
On the 25th anniversary of that war, Argentina have renewed their claim that The Malvinas belong to Argentina, and it is very hard to argue with them."The Malvinas are Argentine, they always were, they always will be," said Argentine Vice-President Daniel Scioli.
Mr Scioli was speaking in the southern city of Ushuaia - one of a series of events marking the start of the war.
He urged the UK to resume talks on the sovereignty of the islands.
The Falklands war was fought out of a sense of outrage, Thatcher's outrage. At the time she was the least popular Prime Minister since records began. When Galtieri invaded the islands he, unwittingly, threw her a lifeline.
She launched an Armada, knowing that her political future would be decided by the fate of the venture. Tragically, she succeeded, and used that success to inflict almost criminal damage upon Britain's working class.
Now, 25 years later, far removed from the outrage that Galtieri's invasion set off in Fleet Street, is there a single Brit who seriously thinks that these islands belong to us? These islands 8,000 miles from our shores?
The argument over whether or not Britain should have defended the islands from invasion is a separate argument from whether or not one actually believes these islands belong to Britain. Galtieri left Thatcher with no choice. Had she not attempted to retake the islands her Premiership would have been over. The British press would never have forgiven this assault on our honour over a group of islands that few of us had ever heard of. Indeed, when I first heard that Argentina had invaded the Falklands, I assumed that they must have taken some islands north of Orkney. The idea that we were laying claim to group of islands nearer to the south pole than to Cornwall simply never occurred to me.
However, 25 years later, the essential argument has never been resolved. The people on the island continue to insist that they are British, whilst equally insisting that they have no wish to live in Britain, and the Argentineans continue to insist that the islands actually belong to them, although they now say that they will never again invade them.
National honour is at stake, only twenty five years down the line, it's hard to actually argue that the honour at stake is British. That may have been the case when the islands had been invaded, but in the cold light of day it's very hard for the British to maintain their claim over these islands anymore than they can continue, with a straight face, to lay claim over Gibralter.
The problem, of course, is the wishes of the islanders themselves which the British have always maintained will be sacrosanct.
There will be many who think that this is a proper position for the British to adopt, although I don't find too many of them arguing that the Americans should leave Diego Garcia and allow the residents evicted by the British to return to their homes.
The residents of Diego Garcia were evicted for no more honourable a reason than that the Americans wanted a military base there and the British wanted Polaris missile technology.
If people are going to argue that the Falklanders are British because the people there insist that they are British, then they must carry the argument to it's logical conclusion and insist that the Americans vacate their base at Diego Garcia and allow the evicted populace to return.
If they are not willing to do this, then they must accept that asking the people of the Falkland Islands to carry a different passport is hardly comparable to what was done to the residents of Diego Garcia.
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