Chagos ‘stupidity’ exposes how UK has become powerless

HAVING initially condoned it, President Trump has now woken up to the fact that Sir Keir Starmer's plan to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is an "act of great stupidity".

- Tim Newark Political Commentator

Chagossians opposed to the handover to Mauritius demonstrate by Downing Street

Clearly piqued at Starmer’s opposition to his own Greenland claim, Trump is now not willing to indulge the badvalue deal.

Included in the surrender is the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, crucial for any Indian Ocean operations, and, as Trump suggests, the UK is doing this “for no reason whatsoever”. In fact, the reality is worse in that we will be paying some £30billion in total to give away islands that belong to us. Worst still, to a country 1,250 miles away with scant historical interest in the islands — and an ally of China to boot.

It's bad enough misleading the public about the true cost of the deal — originally put at “just” £3billion — but there is also something distinctly shady about the whole mess. The Labour government claims that it has no choice after “court decisions undermined our position”. But these decisions were made in the International Court of Justice which has no validity in UK law at all.

WE COULD simply ignore it and save a huge sum of money.