‘4,000 people minding our own business’: four decades on, Falklands again face a hostile Argentina

Facing a slump in the polls, Argentina’s president is making economic attacks on the islands’ oil industry, and suggesting its key fisheries industry could be next A dozen local people and a uniformed military police officer (“Do you mind if I sit in?”) took their seats at the back of the handsome wood-panelled courtroom that doubles as the Falkland Islands’ legislative assembly.

Outside, it was a typically blowy early evening.

It may nominally be spring in the south Atlantic, but Stanley harbour, with its dark grey water speckled with historical shipwrecks, was a cauldron of swells and churn.

Six of the assembly’s eight members – five men, one woman – waited patiently at a row of desks and microphones.

The heating had been turned up to just short of uncomfortable.

Behind them, a portrait of King Charles.

From the other walls, dusty photographs of governors, of varying popularity, gazed disinterestedly at the scene.

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