Falklands 30 years on: oil dream could end days of squid and subsidy

Margaret Thatcher asked a colleague how to keep the islands after the war. The answer: state aid

Falklands

love to give history lessons to visitors. A favorite is the 1982 war with Argentina, with all its horrors, has attracted the attention hitherto neglected its archipelago. A social and economic revolution continued.

The capital, Port Stanley, where four-fifths of the population of the islands of swelling in 3000 who now lives, has become a nestling, whirlpool imperial melancholy to expand the center, even a little careless regional. Stanley few older residents still wear jackets, like a golf club in 1950. However, most local men fleeces Please mirror sunglasses and goatees -. Uniforms insurance, outdoor activities for the prosperity of the southern hemisphere white

"This is a much more enterprising company that used to be," said Keith Padgett, chief executive of the Falkland Islands. "We were very much isolated from the world [recent] economic decline. Last year [the government] had a surplus of 16 million pounds. "

long boom that took place since the liberation of the islands by the government of Margaret Thatcher should add luster to his military triumph financial close. The truth is somewhat more complicated. Because it is less coherent here than in other revered figure in the recent history of the Falklands. His model of the arrow, the past four decades, but it is always derived from the supposedly discredited economic philosophy. State capitalism in Britain mid-70

Lord Shackleton, who died in 1994, was the son of Antarctic explorer Ernest. It was a post-war Labour MP, then a speaker of influence and the minister still has the fascination of his father with the South Atlantic. In 1975, he visited the Falkland Islands for the government of Harold Wilson to conduct an economic study. As a small office, remote too on British sheep farming, the struggles of the affected islands had worsening Whitehall intermittently for decades. With a small team of British experts, Shackleton spent weeks crossing the Falklands, ultimately, meet "the majority of the population."

Terence McPhee, then a teenager, was one of them. "I thought it was very clever," said McPhee. Shackleton broadly interpreted its jurisdiction - "He asked me and my friends what they think of Argentina" - and drew conclusions difficult . In Stanley and the country, or the camp, he found high rates of divorce, women are few, and drinking too many farm workers, with a dependence on their employers that it was almost feudal small and shabby public services, and obvious lack of career or business.

His solution was to state investment. "The expansion of government, both in their role and capacity is essential," It is recommended that the construction of roads, schools and much more large and the airport, government assistance for tenants who wanted to buy their land, whether the oil and gas resources off the coast, and the creation of a fishing zone around the islands. Funding for this should come largely from London. By the time the report was published in 1976, the British government was in a crisis of mid-70s financial, and only some of its recommendations have been implemented smaller. Then came the war. Even as British troops were still fighting in the mountains above Stanley, Shackleton Thatcher asked to update his report urgently, as a plan for rebuilding the Falklands after the war.

He got close to their initial recommendations, and this time, Whitehall found the money to implement them. In Britain, at least, in the euphoria of the defeat of Argentina, the strangeness of the Shackleton-Thatcher alliance was hardly observed. Even today, the public sector have invaded the islands in a way that feels a bit utopian state for any visitor to the left decreases Britain. Falkland Islands government land Rovers are everywhere. Stanley taller buildings are a school and a hospital built since the war. The recipes are free. Patients who need complex operations can obtain government funding for flights to Chile.

The government pays for the Islanders to attend university in Britain. Stanley Services, a ubiquitous society offers everything from rental cars to imports of wine at the station in the city than on the gas, is part of state property. There is a Falkland Islands Development Corporation "to do things more risky we operate," as CEO Marc Boucher said. Everywhere there are modernized infrastructure Shackleton asked, roads, trails, windmills. At the camp, says Sukey Cameron, the government representative in London, "many of these roads are practically personal access roads people."

almost Scandinavian This level of state provision did not require the imposition Scandinavian. No council tax or VAT, no tax on gasoline or diesel, and the tax is significantly lower than in Britain, with the first £ 12,000 of income tax free and a maximum rate of only 26%.

• How
• with social democracy in a global recall has apparently managed to install the Falklands so cheap? One answer is war, and the special treatment that followed, such as the United Kingdom at the expense of defending the islands, now more than 60 million pounds per year. This amounts to over £ 20,000 by Falklander - almost twice the level of public expenditure by the British. Another answer may be found on the waterfront in the prosperous town of the late Stanley, in a floating dock built oxidized by the army in the 80s. Here, a maze of shipping containers converted, as something of a Mad Max movie houses the offices of the Ministry of Fisheries of the Falkland Islands. John Barton, a quiet man, precise in a pale purple shirt, is its director. "The fisheries sector has been the driving force in the Falklands after the war," he says. "There are probably more people working on board fishing vessels when the entire civilian population."

Since 1986, when the fishery was established, based on more or less in the exclusion zone of 200 miles around the islands during the war, the government of fishing licenses sold to ships in the Falklands from Spain and the Far East. This trade generated a quarter to three quarters of the annual turnover of any government. The cold and turbulent waters are rich, especially squid. "If you eat a squid around the south of Europe, 50% chance it is a squid in the Falklands," said Barton. "Malvinas politicians come to us and say," Surely, if we want this path asphalt that others can not sell 10 licenses of squid? "But fishing is a sensitive issue in recent years, catches of squid were much lower than in the 80 and 90 Climate change could be partly responsible:. . Squids are sensitive to the temperature of the sea so. that probably are the deteriorating relations of the islands to Argentina. Many squid in Argentine waters swim their way to the Falklands, and since 2005, Argentina has refused to work with the islands to conserve stocks.

With fishing on the likelihood of a slow reduction, most of the hopes of long-term prosperity now rests in the oil. In the 70 surrounding seabed was considered potentially sedimentary basin oil. In the 90s, the exploration licenses were sold, some oil was found, but when oil prices collapsed. Now the price is still high, the search has resumed work and many expect oil field Malvinas this decade. "There are strong winds and high tides, but less extreme, while in the North Sea," said Stephen Luxton, Director of the Falklands mineral resources. A floating production and storage vessel could be anchored above the bottom Sea, he said, and tankers could fill up there, without the need for a refinery in the Falkland Islands or South America. Last week, Argentina has promised legal action against companies involved, but Luxton said that the geographical and commercial reality - a reservoir of the Falklands would work without anyone crossing the Argentine territorial waters - may limit its effectiveness, the threat of

taxes and fees resulting income would lead to the government of the Falklands, in "a few hundred dollars per year, without too much difficulty." The government's total annual income is currently £ 40 million. Luxton was raised on a farm in West Falkland Islands, traditionally the sleeping part of the archipelago. His department is still housed in a bungalow. With oil, he said, "how life will change Malvinas".
Some older islanders are baffled by how much they have since 1982. Before the war, said Nancy Poole, a farmer of 50 years, "was a beautiful place to live, unless they were very ambitious for the entire population was the same. Cattle similar, as there was very rich TODAY ' Today., and there are people trying to live on 10k a year. "

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