Diego Garcia is an island in the Indian Ocean claimed by Mauritius, ‘owned’ by the United Kingdom and leased to the United States.
When the UK gave independence to Mauritius in 1968, Diego Garcia was not included in the group of islands that was granted that independence. However, worse than that, the formerly-inhabited, islands were purged of their people.
This is clearly morally wrong, but now that they have been allowed to reside in the UK, we’re refusing to treat them as British citizens! Surely, having committed such an atrocity, we should (as a caring, compassionate and just nation) be bending over backwards to make the rest of their lives better.
Wandering slightly off topic, it has long been my belief that victims of miscarriages of justice — those people who are not just found to have ‘unsafe’ convictions, but those people who are fully acquitted — should be given more than enough money to live on for the rest of their lives. If you have had your liberty taken, potentially other horrendous things happen to you, you should not then be required to return to the grindstone and continue to pay taxes to the state that wronged you so heinously.
Staggering back to the topic in hand, this is far more sinister than a miscarriage of justice; this is a meditated act by the State and should be resolved with humility, generousity and apology. Act Mr Brown, act like a liberal rather than a left-wing facist.
Instead, we are denying these people the basic rights a citizen is afforded by other taxpayers: benefits. See today’s BBC News article on the Diego Garcians.
November 4th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
In a community sense its a bit like when Margaret Thatcher destroyed mining and other communities in between 1979-1985, formed over generations? Perhaps their human rights were also abused a little.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Erm no. Thatcher stopped wasting taxpayers money on an industry which had become non-profitable due to the way the coal was deposited in thin seams.
The theft of a people’s land is quite different to the long-overdue removal of subsidies.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Although the situation is wrong, I Hope your not blaming Brown for this?
Please remember that Brown has been PM for 4 months, compared to Blair’s 10 years, Maggie and John Major’s combined 17 yrs. etc. could go way back to Edward Heath!
November 9th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
The only fault that Brown could reasonably be expected to take responsibility for is a failure to make it clear that this was wrong and that full British citizenship should be granted.