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British Newspaper the Sun To Argentina’s President: ‘Hands Off’ the Falklands

By Jan. 04, 20130
ALEJANDRO PAGNI/AFP/Getty Images

Picture of an advert placed in the Buenos Aires Herald by Britain's The Sun warning Argentina to keep its "hands off" the Falklands, taken at a newsstand in Buenos Aires, on January 4, 2013

So this is what game theorists were talking about when they coined the term “tit-for-tat.” In response to Argentinian president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner publishing an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron in two major British newspapers, calling for the Falkland Islands to be returned to Argentina, Britain’s biggest-selling tabloid newspaper has returned fire. The Sun has hit back in similar style.

(MORE: Argentina’s Fernández Denounces Britain’s ‘Militarization’ of the Falkland Islands)

The Sun‘s response Friday appeared in the English language Buenos Aires Herald in both English and Spanish. The ad spot, expected to be read by a circulation of roughly 50,000, instructed the Argentinians to keep their “hands off” the Falklands, the island chain in the very South Atlantic near Antarctica, which the two countries fought over 30 years ago. The paper dismissed the claim made by Fernández that the Falklands were “forcibly stripped” from Argentina:

Claims that 180 years ago Argentina was ‘stripped’ of the Falkland Islands are unfounded. No Argentinian civilian population was ever expelled. It was an Argentine garrison which had been sent to the islands to try to impose Argentine sovereignty over British sovereign territory … until the people of the Falkland Islands choose to become Argentinian, they remain resolutely British.

It was a tenacious reply, following the first shot fired Thursday by Argentina’s president. The 212-word letter published in The Guardian and The Independent newspapers in the U.K., didn’t just single out Cameron — it also roped in Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, and mentioned the organization’s role in conflict-solving.

In 1960, the United Nations proclaimed the necessity of “bringing to an end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.” In 1965, the General Assembly adopted, with no votes against (not even by the United Kingdom), a resolution considering the Malvinas Islands a colonial case and inviting the two countries to negotiate a solution to the sovereignty dispute between them.

But the Sun must have felt pretty safe about its position, considering that both Cameron and the Falklands government seem to be in agreement with each other. Cameron recently reaffirmed that the Islanders had his “100% backing” to remain British, while Dick Sawle, a legislative assembly member, writing on the Falklands government website, called Fernández’s letter “disappointing” and “historically inaccurate.”

(MORE: Argentina and Britain’s Unfinished War: Hate E-Mail, Harassing Calls and Prince William)

This March will see the Islanders have a real stake in their own future with a referendum expected to take place, quite probably resulting in the region remaining British. But that might not put an end to the spat, considering that Fernández has mid-term elections later in the year, with her opinion on the Falklands likely to curry favor with the Argentinian electorate.

MAGAZINE: Can Argentina’s President Maintain Her Support Amid a Stalling Economy?

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famulla5
famulla5

This is the latest on the Fiscal Cliff Fresh from the long legislative fight to prevent a "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, President Barack Obama warned on Saturday that the United States could not afford further budget showdowns this year or in the future. Obama, who returned to Hawaii for a family vacation shortly after the House of Representatives passed a compromise bill on Tuesday, said in his weekly radio and Internet address that the new law was just one step toward fixing the country's fiscal and economic problems. "We still need to do more to put Americans back to work while also putting this country on a path to pay down its debt, and our economy can't afford more protracted showdowns or manufactured crises along the way," he said in the address, broadcast on Saturday. "Because even as our businesses created 2 million new jobs last year - including 168,000 new jobs last month - the messy brinkmanship in Congress made business owners more uncertain and consumers less confident." Government data released on Friday showed the US unemployment rate remained at 7.8 per cent in December. Lawmakers in the Senate and the House passed legislation this week that raised tax rates for the wealthiest Americans while making Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class permanent. It was a victory for Obama, who campaigned for re-election largely on a promise to achieve that goal. Republicans have indicated that they are ready for another fight over the US debt ceiling. Representative Dave Camp, delivering his party's weekly address, warned, at least indirectly, that they would expect spending cuts in return for raising the ceiling again. "Many of our Democrat colleagues just don't seem to get it. Throughout the fiscal cliff discussions, the president and the Democrats who control Washington repeatedly refused to take any meaningful steps to make Washington live within its means," Camp said. "As we turn our attention toward future discussions on the debt limit and the budget, we must identify responsible ways to tackle Washington's wasteful spending." Obama repeated that he would not negotiate on the debt ceiling, hoping to avoid the 2011 conflict that led to a credit rating downgrade and pushed the country close to default. "If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic," he said. "Our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again." Obama said he was willing to do more on deficit reduction and suggested that the hike in tax rates for wealthy Americans was not the last tax change he expected to make. "Spending cuts must be balanced with more reforms to our tax code," he said. "The wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations shouldn't be able to take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren't available to most Americans." . I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA
















famulla5
famulla5

Please we better go to the FC then learn more on the history READ ON The name fiscal cliff was totally and utterly wrong. By all accounts going over the cliff was the best solution available to getting our financial house in order. So calling it a cliff really was entirely misleading.Reality is that we do not have enough tax revenue in this country and we also spend to much. The solution has to be to make a more broader tax base as the "rich" seem to have been seriously wiped out in the great recession (we lost 50% of their taxable revenue for example). That means this liberal concept of progressive taxation has failed. We need to tax in such a way that when the economy has a rather small less than 4% contraction our tax base doesn't shrink as dramatically as it did. That goes for the federal, state and local levels.Business tax revenue has also shrunk because we only take "our" businesses. Instead of taking business we should instead use a VAT tax that taxes ALL businesses that do business in the US, especially those foreign companies that like to splash and dash and say they made no profits here in the USA. I thank you FirozaliA.Mulla DBA

famulla5
famulla5

Concerns the UK is “triple-dipping” back into recession rose on Friday, as a closely-watched gauge of the services sector showed output fell for the first time in two years.
Markit’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) threw up a reading of 48.9 for December, where anything below 50 signals activity in the sector contracted.
Nick Beecroft, an analyst at Saxo Capital Markets, called it a “pretty disastrous” result. The reading signalled that, except for 2010’s snow-hit December, activity in the sector is shrinking for the first time since early 2009. Then, stock markets were only just recovering from their post-crisis lows.
Despite the pick-up seen in the previous day’s manufacturing PMI, the latest surveys together tally with a fall in the UK’s headline growth in the fourth quarter, according to economists. Services companies from insurers to hairdressers account for around three quarters of the UK economy, dwarfing manufacturing at 10pc. You see this is today but as years go by the real value of the money will still erode This is from the UK paper  I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

famulla5
famulla5

pointless in getting all the cries when the kand is so far lie the East and West Pakistan. One day they will part . England cannot afford to keep the island cash on all the time when Britain herself has leaking hole in the budgets. No pub no offences meant no sarcasm but the trut is as is I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

mrbomb13
mrbomb13

This Argentinian president has earned quite a reputation for being quite a 'noise-maker.'

She keeps calling for the British to cede control of the Falkland Islands, but it turns out she's, "all bark, and no bite."

Then again, she would be foolish to use the military to challenge Great Britain.  After all, it was the Brits who beat Argentina roughly 30 years ago.