It was a bonanza for financially-minded Chagos-followers on Saturday as the FT dedicated a long-read to the topic in its weekend edition. The only problem: the piece was riddled with errors…
The article described “the Chagos Islands, once neglected dependencies of Mauritius”. No, the Chagos Islands have never been under the sovereignty of an independent Mauritius…
It continued: “The evicted Chagossians campaigned for decades; their case was pressed by Mauritius, which argued Britain had violated international law by dividing the territory before decolonisation.” The Chagossians certainly can’t remember their case being pressed by Mauritius -hello Philippe Sands?
The paper reaches peak FT when it somehow blames Brexit for the Starmer Chagos deal disaster: “The chaos of the Brexit years damaged Britain’s reputation so much that Starmer’s government has understandably decided it must prioritise international legal obligations.” An unusually exotic case of BDS…
Starmer loyalist and Housing Secretary Steve Reed told Sky News that Starmer should not be replaced:
“We saw what the Tories did. They were in power for 14 years, and after 2016, I think we had nine education secretaries, seven chancellors, and five Prime Ministers. Doomscrolling through Prime Ministers doesn’t resolve the problem.”