MARGARET Beckett has been in hot water with the jingoistic right wing press for making a statement on the 25th anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas war regretting the loss of lives in that conflict.
To the xenophobes this is deemed to be an "apology" for the wal, waged by able to exploit Margaret Thatcher,
the occasion which cost the lives of 1,000 British of the troops and thouFalklands War sands of Argentines, along with to rebuild thousands more
flagging Tory injured, in defence of British colonial fortunes and rule over an outcrop
win a landslide of rock deep in the southern hemi- victory in the sphere, with its following population of 1,200.
Labour is not the party that needs to apologise for the that war, which may go down on record as one of the tew in recent decades on which the Labour Party, under Michael Foot, took any kind of principled line of opposition.
But with virtually the entire popular press and media trumpeting the bravery of "our boys" and the eventual victory, Thatcher was able to exploit the occasion to rebuild flagging Tory fortunes and win a landslide victory in the following year's general election.
For Beckett to question
whether the loss Thatcher was
of life - and the subsequent massive expenditure on building up and maintaining a military outpost on "Fortress Falklands" defending the population of sheep, penguins, squaddies and a few civilians- was proportional or worthwhile is perfectly legitimate: but she could also year's general usefully ask other
questions in the light of this experience. Since the Argentine "invasion" of the islands to which they have long claimed sovereignty took place despite Britain's possession of a massive nuclear arsenal, we might ask how Beckett and colleagues justify the decision just a few weeks ago to commit to a £76 billion replacement for Trident which clearly is not a deterrent, and would be no more useful or useable in future years against any similar threat.
And as British government statisticians grudgingly concede the accuracy of last year's Lancet figures claiming a death toll of over 600,000 Iraqi civilians since the 2003 invasion, if Beckett regrets the loss of life in a much smaller-scale conflict waged by another government 25 years ago, why does she not regret the massive slaughter of military and civilians as a result of her party and her government's actions today?
25 years on, far from really learning the lessons of previous imperialist adventures, New Labour has taken on the Thatcherite mantle and compounded the errors they once correctly exposed.
A party whose leading members are so incapable of facing the reality of their actions, and preparing to install a new leader to continue identical policies is clearly past the point of no return.
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