The News In Pictures: The Falkland Islands

I'm not sure what Matthew Parris is talking about with "Give The Falklands Back". To demonstrate, here's a little chart which shows the history of the Falkland Islands since the first colony in 1764 through to today with the areas coloured based on rule throughout those years:-

Key

• Purple - Britain and France joint rule
• Orange - Spain and Britain joint rule
• Yellow - Spain rule
• Green - no rule
• Cyan - Argentinian rule
• Blue - British rule

I hope this helps anyone reading to visualise just how little the islands have been Argentinian. In their history, they have been ruled by Argentina for less than 13 years. Add this to the fact that France were the first colonists, and that the islanders want to be part of Britain, and Argentina's claim looks pretty weak.