It just isn't 1833 any more

[bunn]

I see that the residents of the Falkland Islands have voted to stay British again. I'm glad they are getting a choice. I really don't feel that 'they were Argentinian in 1833' is really much of an argument. Imagine if we rolled everything back legally to the status in 1833! It would certainly be entertaining (who's going to volunteer to tell China that they should be a monarchy again?), but I can't help feeling that 'let's just ask people which nation they want to belong to now' is the more practical approach.

Comments

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

That seems fair. I think some people like the idea of rolling everything back to 1833 (or 1492, or whenever) because they haven't really thought it through, and it sounds like doing so would somehow undo all kinds of historical injustice - as if we could rewind history.

But we can't, and pretending we can would cause huge practical problems, so asking people what they want now is the best we can do.