Good news from the Court of Appeal, where Chagos islanders have won an important stage of their legal fight to return to their home.
In one of those pathetic hangovers from its Empire past that would get the Daily Mail all misty-eyed, Britain "owns" these islands on the other side of the world. In the 1960s and '70s, benign landlord Britain expelled 2,000 islanders to make way for the US to set up an air and naval base on Diego Garcia, one of the largest islands in the Chagos group. And the British government is still pretending that its actions are OK, since the base is in use to support the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and therefore allowing its people to return and live there would compromise national security.
Hmmmm, a Pacific paradise for peace-loving native residents? Or a base for killing? At least the Appeal Court is leaning towards the former, even if Blair/Brown's 'ethical foreign policy' takes them in the opposite direction from anything I recognise as 'ethical'.
