Editor’s Note: Our new MP for Surrey Heath, Dr Al Pinkerton, was, until his election an Associate Professor of Geopolitics specialising in international borders and boundary disputes. Next Sunday, at Conference, he’ll be chairing a fringe meeting about the Falkland Islands at 11:30 am in the Regent Room at the Grand Hotel.  Speakers include  Lib Dem Peers Jeremy Purvis and Julie Smith and two members of the Falklands Islands Legislative Assembly. 

Here, Al writes about the history of the Falklands and the values we Lib Dems share with the islanders. 

Think of the Falkland Islands and you’d be forgiven if your mind turned to ideas of war, sheep, colonialism and Margaret Thatcher. Not exactly a Liberal Democrat’s idea of a good time, I know. But if you’ve had the opportunity to visit the Falklands – even if only for a few hours’ stopover on an Antarctic cruise – you will almost certainly carry with you memories of pristine wildernesses, extraordinary wildlife, and a diverse community who are proudly Falkland Islanders and resolutely wish to remain associated with the United Kingdom.

Until the recent General Election, I was an Associate Professor of Geopolitics specialising in international border and boundary disputes. One of the places I have returned to most often, and certainly one of the places that I’ve come to know best, is the Falkland Islands. Now, as a new Liberal Democrat MP, I wish to make a bold proposition: the cause of the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islanders is one rooted in the traditions of liberalism, is a cause that could and should be close to the hearts of Liberal Democrats, and is certainly one that is much too important to leave to the ownership of the Conservative Party and those with an unhealthy fascination with Margaret Thatcher.

Some quick facts. The first reported sighting of the Falkland Islands was in August 1592 by British navigator, John Davis, aboard the ship ‘Desire’. There was no human habitation of the islands until 1764, when France established a garrison, followed in 1765 by the British and, in 1770, the Spanish. The islands have been permanently inhabited and administered by the UK since 1833 and some Falkland Islands families can trace their ancestry to that moment and the years shortly thereafter. Argentina’s claim to the Falklands (or the Islas Malvinas) can be traced to 1820, when it proclaimed sovereignty over the islands as the successor state to Spain.

Whatever the relative historical merits of sovereignty claim and counter claim by Argentina and the UK, the wishes of Falkland Islanders were made clear when, in 2013, the country held a referendum on whether to remain an Overseas Territory of the UK. On a turnout of 92%, 99.8% of Falkland Islanders voted “yes”, with only three votes against.

As an accredited observer of that referendum, I saw for myself the intensity of feeling expressed by islanders in the lead up to the vote, but also the extraordinary process of administering a democratic ballot (one intensely scrutinised by the international media and election monitors) by the Falkland Islands Government across an archipelago of many hundred islands covering an area half the size of Wales. While the result was never really in much doubt, the referendum was a powerful expression of Falkland Islanders deeply cherished right to self-determine their own future and came at a time (in 2013) when the Kirchner government in Buenos Aires were pursuing their claim to the Islands with more vigour than at any point since the 1982 conflict.

The Falkland Islands of 2024 is a modern, thriving, small, democracy of 3500 people who represent more than 60 different countries, including Saint Helena, Chile, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The 2021 census even records 31 Argentines living in the Islands. Unlike some other UK Overseas Territories, the Falklands is noteworthy for its embrace (albeit only recently expressed in law) of social liberalism. In 2017 same-sex marriage was legalised and the capital, Stanley, played host the world’s most southerly Pride festival. The islands have, in recent years, become leaders in biodiversity protection, conservation and environmental stewardship, especially of the vast marine estate that surrounds the Falklands.

Today fishing has replaced sheep farming as the main contributor to the Falklands’ economy and central to the fishing industry is the sale of commercial licences to catch illex squid, the primary market for which is Spain. Prior to Brexit, the Falklands enjoyed tariff-free access to the EU market. Since the end of 2021, Falkland Islands exports to the EU have been subject to 42% tariffs on meat and between 6% and 18% for fisheries. Consequently, meat exports to the EU are no longer viable, while fisheries products are substantially less profitable, threatening public revenues and the Islands’ GDP. Unlike citizens of Gibraltar, Falkland Islanders were denied the right to vote in the 2016 referendum; and the Falklands received no mention in Johnson’s “oven ready” Brexit deal.

In so many ways we Liberal Democrats find ourselves in common cause with Falkland Islanders. Socially liberal, protective of the natural environment, committed to the UK and yet proudly and avowedly international in outlook. As Liberal Democrats we champion and defend the right to self-determination at home and around the world. What greater example of that than a community of 3,500 people in the South Atlantic who, like so many of us, recognised the power of freely associating with political and economic unions (British and European) to deliver security and prosperity in a rapidly changing world.

UPDATE 22 September: the recording of the fringe meeting is below:

* Dr Al Pinkerton is the Liberal Democrat MP for Surrey Heath. Prior to his election in 2024, he was an associate professor of Geopolitics.