Are we being set up for the final give away? Is the idea of going to the UN General Assembly an effort to show the PM under pressure from some members of that body to surrender our islands? Does tge PM not understand the General Assembly cannot order a Security Council member to give away sovereign territory? Doesn’t he see it will make him seem weak if he is harangued to give away the Chagos, then does so?
Therecis no defence case fir giving Diego Garcia away. Mauritius is a friend of China’s who might well grant China access to the waters around the Chagos. Mauritius is a non nuclear nation. Once in charge of the islands they might object to nuclear powered and nuclear armed boats and planes using the base.
The UK’s title to the islands is good There is no good Mauritius claim, a country 1200 miles away and without a navy to protect the base. The islands enjoy strong environmental protection. Mauritius would want to exploit the fishing potential and other natural resources.
It is madness to surrender the ownership. Even worse to offer them large sums of money to do so. I advise the PM to cancel the visit to the UN General Assembly. It could prove expensive and not even give him good pictures.
August 28, 2026
There is no rational argument for paying large sums of money to a foreign Nation, to lease back land/territory that we already legally own which has no debts.
It’s like me giving the ownership of my house to the previous mortgage company (which has already been fully paid up) and me restarting my mortgage repayments, but still being responsible for the maintenance of it.
It is just crass stupidity, and makes no sense at all.
August 28, 2026
There is an argument for doing it. It will mean colossal legal bills for all the work done, so lawyers at the UN will want to make business for their posh lawyer friends.
August 28, 2026
Burnham will be continuation Starmer – but more personable. It will be interesting to see how he responds to challenges in parliament. Maybe deputies will mostly cover while he retreats to the North?
August 28, 2026
While damaging the West’s defence systems – hugely in the process.
August 28, 2026
This government, even more than previous governments, does seem to be deternined to get every single thing disastrously wrong. Are they just very dim or are they actually enemies of the UK. If we are to give Chagos away it should be given to the USA not Mauritious/China.
Well said Jacob Rees-Mogg and JR on Wednesday’s GBNews (on the clearly political kangaroo court of the UK parliamentary standards watchdog). My rule of thumb is that anything that feels the need to calls itself “independent” invariably never is. A bit like anything that feels the need to call itself “science” useually is not remotely independent in reality.
August 28, 2026
– usually is not a science rather!
August 28, 2026
He will continue the giveaway because his handlers demand it. Burnham is a WEF stooge and has over 2 years to inflict maximum damage.
He will do nothing about the channel invasion because as a Fabian he believes in open borders.
While the rest of the world turns right, we continue down the Marxist blind alley.
August 28, 2026
Good advice as usual for Burnham but Starmer and Burnham seem totally unable to recognise good advice even if it punches them in the face. It is hard to find a single thing they are getting right on borders, their doom loop economy, on jobs, education, housing, landlord and tenant, employment laws, defence, tax levels, red tape in general, transport, universities, Gibraltar, immigration levels, crime, justice, the ECHR, EU “realignment”, borrowing levels, the out of control benefits bill, DEI… any positives at all?
August 28, 2026
Government must have a reason for this grotesque, deeply self-damaging giveaway but the explanations given so far would not impose on an eight-year-old.
Our host may not be in the loop but he is probably closer to it than the rest of us. Can he tell us what he and other Parliamentarians suspect is the secret motivation behind the madness?
August 28, 2026
Mr Burnham should concentrate on more about what’s happening in this country were lawlessness is running rampant all across England than in the Chagos islands, we are slowly becoming a third world country with small pockets of young men building up a invading force to take us down from the inside, what’s needed badly is a General Election so we can get rid of the leftists politicians and replaced with true English patriots who still believe in Great Britain, so come on Burnham have the balls to see if you have the backing of the British people and call a General Election
August 28, 2026
His choice is simple. He can submit to the demands of the so called ‘International’ community and divest the UK of another overseas territory at great cost and compromise our security options across the vast open sea trade routes to the far East.
Or, he can retain the islands honour our signed defence treaty with the USA, who share the islands military facilities and save the UK £33billion over the coming century. That was the dowry figure offered to Mauritius to take the Indian Ocean Territories over.
It is Labour making the choice so expect the worst option to prevail.
If the Chagos islands are retained , keep an eye on the amount of ‘foreign aid’ we gift to Mauritius going forward. The new Labour PM has already said he intends to increase our spend on foreign aid, putting it back up to 0.7% of GNP, i.e. £21billion/yr. That would mean, more than doubling our current budgeted spending.
August 28, 2026
Of course it will go ahead as Burnham has said nothing to suggest otherwise. ‘International Law’ prevails – ie a literal and narrow interpretation of what is stated as necessary.
On a wider front, Mr Burnham is keen on electoral reform and my reading of the left wing press shows he is receiving considerable internal advice on this. Certainly, Guardian writers are very keen on proportional representation as a means of preventing any future right of centre government and they are quite explicit about that. Let’s brace ourselves for the next general election to be contested on this basis should Labour be lagging in the opinion polls as their period in office approaches its end.
August 28, 2026
I assume there must be some other motivation behind this drive to “dispose” of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius but if so, I have’nt been able to fathom it yet. If we really don’t want it, the US is the obvious choice and they might even pay us for the pleasure. We certainly don’t need it these days, we don’t have a Navy anymore.
August 28, 2026
Here we go again the last lot were Dim is it possible that this lot are even Dimmer ?
August 28, 2026
It’s ‘Dumb & Dumber’ JP – and that wasn’t a very funny film either
August 28, 2026
He doesn’t understand and he doesn’t care. Never forget it is about him and him alone.
There needs to be some effort by us all including the Media to explain better there is no such thing as ‘International Law’ so there is no International Police, no International Court. Treaties and agreements are just that and work when the suit all parties.
The UK’s problem is the Cabal calling themselves International Lawyers, a club of individuals that are making a financial killing out of the UK’s gullible taxpayer
August 28, 2026
Perhaps he his planning to put himself in the public’s shoes and mindset in order to establish once & for all exactly why ‘they’ are doing it because it is to most normal folk is non sensical and as plain as mud. Just tell us why!
August 28, 2026
Our last hope on this – and the West’s – is President Trump, who should slap this down. Imagine if we’d had Kamala Harris as president. The surrender would already have gone through.
August 28, 2026
Chagos is a symptom not the underlying problem.
The underlying problem is the terrible quality of our ruling class.
August 28, 2026
It’s time for Trump to sort Burnham and his globalist friends out. The Chagossians would accept a takeover by the USA with guarantees of an independent island with investment as a holiday Isle and military base with lucrative jobs. The UK can no longer be trusted as a reliable ally to the US and free Western world. The Fabian and other subversives have taken over.
August 28, 2026
trump has told the UK to cut immigration massively and drill for oil, common sense which would win a landslide in a referendum
August 28, 2026
I’m afraid to say that this will not be the only folly undertaken by man totally unqualified to hold this office. A position gained by underhand means.
August 28, 2026
As an aside, illustrating the illusions, delusions and deflections being offered in the Country as it falls apart
In the Telegraph today; “Middlesbrough residents have said they fear the rising violence could lead to “carnage” in the city, which has the highest crime rate in England excluding Central London.”
How does the Socialist mayor of London ‘sell’ his town? The one with the ‘highest crime rate in England? In the same vein as Burnham, sells everything, it is his town. Just as Middlesbrough is a Socialist Town – Labour at its best working with a pretend leadership that is working for themselves not the communities the party leadership parachuted them into. It about ‘Me’ the clarion call of Labour and their Socialist Doctrine
August 28, 2026
The Chagos islanders should be allowed to re-inhabit the islands, whilst remaining as a British protectorate or British overseas territory. The Diego Garcia base should remain as it is. It could supply employment for any returning islanders.
Starmer wanted to hand it to Mauritius. His apprentice Burnham will follow orders. The British people will continue to be betrayed.
August 28, 2026
Madness is the right word. What kind of idiot’s thinking is behind the Chagos giveaway? Burnham had a chance to start with a clean slate and dump this kind of stupidity.
But of course, Burnham is dealing with really important things, like £2.00 bus fares, taking VAT off electricity bills for six months and now sorting out cowboy builders.
Yet another PM who does not put the UK first and is a complete lightweight!
August 28, 2026
No-one seems to have any idea why we are giving away the Chagos Islands; no reasons have been given why we don’t want them anymore and yet successive Government’s are ‘hell bent’ on getting rid of them.
There are more urgent issues the Government has to deal with than giving away Sovereign territory.
There are other questions as follows’
1]Why are we not selling them to the highest bidder?
2]Why are we not offering them to America who have an airbase there?
3]Why not use them as a bargaining chip to reduce our tariffs on goods exported to the USA?
4]Why do we need America’s agreement before we can give away our land holdings around the World?
5] Why are we proposing to give them away and then pay £billions over the next 99 years?
6]The Chagos have already been used as a strategic air base in the Iran war; why give that up?
7]Why is there no Act of Parliament required before we give territory away?
You couldn’t think of a worse deal if you tried and yet both Labour and Conservative before them seem to be committed to giving away the Chagos Islands at any cost and in this case for free, despite huge opposition to doing so.
Reply Conservatives refused to accept the deal and Mr Cameron stopped progress on this bad deal
August 28, 2026
Giving the Chagos Islands away would be idiotic.
It would weaken our defence as well as that of the US, just as idiotic Keir Starmer recently witheld their permission to fly into combat from there instead of US pilots having to strain over a very much longer and dangeroulsly-tiring flight distance.
Paying to give the islands away would be even more stupid, and such a decision would be made only by an enemy of the UK, not one who is supposed to defend it.
Whilst not the owner or joint owner, apparently the USA has some legal leverage over whether the UK would be allowed to give the Islands away. In some ways the US is more protective of us and our culture than the UK government itself.
August 28, 2026
The problem is that the UN and the socialists in our country are aligned in too many ways – they hold the same views on so many things, so the chances are that Burnham will allow himself to be persuaded to give away Chagos.
The UN sees itself as the de facto world government in waiting.
Look at the way it is trying to take power away from nation states. The UN-WHO wants total control of medical issues and even while ignoring their own procedures they plan to pass “country programmes” without even a vote being cast and no chance for nation states to stop it. This will be a way to indoctrinate children in everything that is wrong with woke socialism.
It would appear that the UN is using Chagos to show how weak Britain is and intend to take full advantage of that fact!
August 29, 2026
I understand that you are a busy man with little time to read / approve the posts to your articles, but on the other hand it’s a little frustrating to see posts approved very late so many readers will not see them – especially when there is an important message involved.
With so many issues in the UK we have become inward looking to the detriment of what is happening in global institutions like the UN that is always finding ways to take power to itself, just like the EU does, and none of it is healthy.
The UN with its many subsidiaries is not the organisation it should be, and we seriously need to keep exposing games it plays.
Please do occasional exposes on global quangos, like the UN – because they often work against us.
Reply Short replies and replies with no contentious allegations get posted more promptly. I took time off yesterday to go the cricket. I do provide a 7 day a week service.
August 29, 2026
You’ll please excuse my irritation on this – I appreciate all that you do – you have amazing stamina and are almost always right in your evaluations.
Please consider an investigation into what has become of the UN.
Reply The UN is a good topic but it is not a priority for me given all the other live debates I am in at the moment. There may be a chance if Burnham goes to the UN and blunders.
August 28, 2026
The ICJ has made its ruling on a very complicated matter the UK has signed an agreement but not ratified it yet because of pressure from and the United States – however a chance for guidance will surely come from the UN GA and especially if a vote is taken. We are talking about a lot more than sovereignty here we are talking about the dignity and the lives of the Chagos people who were forced off these Islands fifty years ago to please US strategic interests. I sometimes think that being friends with China might make the better option.
August 28, 2026
494 illegals arrived yesterday
August 29, 2026
Just as kinetic war has changed through the use of drones so have the methods of invasion.
August 28, 2026
As usual a lot of thinking is ‘my country right or wrong and mixed with a yearning for times past it is all askew. This case has been argued in the highest courts and wasn’t it UK itself who originally involved Mauritius – well judgement has been made and agreement signed so what can government do only get on with it.
Yesterday while Mr Burnham was on a visit to Northern Ireland he said that a border poll was “off the table” – his words. Well again this thinking is askew because according to the Belfast Agreement that clause about border poll will be on the table and stay on the table until conditions for a poll are met. The only thing holding it up is that both UK and Irish Governments are agreed they wouldn’t want to end up with 51/49 result which is understandable – however Mr Burnham was wrong to make remarks like he did.
August 28, 2026
Why would you expect anything sensible from Burnham?
He says he is sending £5m to assist Britons in Nepal, which is precisely the same amount he wants to claim back from British ex-servicemen who have mistakenly and inadvertently been overpaid on their pensions through maladministration. Well what about the Nepalese? Their Gurkhas have served the British Army for more than 200 years during which time they have earned 13 VCs. Obviously the only history he studies is Marxism and Groucho makes more sense than the other guy. Shameful and disgraceful.
August 28, 2026
There simply is no reason other than to humiliate the UK, create a further £35bn of debt and erode our national security and that of the USA. We have been and continue to be run by the Continuity Cambridge Gang of Four.
August 28, 2026
A global socialist like Burnham does not need a legal order from the UN. All he needs is endorsement by the ‘international community’. Surrendering the Chagos Islands to Mauritiius can then be proclaimed as a virtuous and generous act. In any case Fabians who control Labour believe nation states shoukd not exist at all and certainly shoukd not have territorial possessions.
A third element is reparations, which the Woke Left believe Britsin owes much of the world for its uniquely evil past.
And China is socialist so what’s not to like?
August 29, 2026
I thought that it was established that the US have an effective veto on this stupid idea?