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Why are they so desperate to make the 🏝️Chagos deal, at any cost? Who benefits from the deal? Mauritius gets £billions from the UK leasing Diego Garcia. Mauritius hopes to earn far more by mining the mineral resources on the seabed of the France-sized Chagos marine zone. The British lawyers 👨‍⚖️ who worked on Project Chagos got £millions and could make many £millions more if the deal goes through. 🇨🇳China, 🇮🇳India, and others could benefit massively from fishing the currently protected marine zone, and mining the rare earth elements REEs and minerals thought to be worth trillions on the Chagos Archipelago's seabed. China and India will significantly increase their military and commercial leverage in a region vital to Western Security. The deal is being sold as securing the strategically important joint UK/US 🪖military base on Diego Garcia. The deal does🚨NOT secure the base. It does the opposite. The deal operationally hobbles the base, and increases the dangers to the British and American military personnel, and the civilians who work there, and in the wider Central Indian Ocean region. Diego Garcia's remoteness made it easy to defend in the past. This deal leaves the base horribly vulnerable to the growing threats posed by the new longer-range missiles, and more sophisticated and lethal drones. When Keir Starmer, Lord Hermer and Vijay Rangarajan, the Director General at the FCDO negotiated the deal, it was fully understood that the outer islands of the Chagos Archipelago were by far the best locations to deploy early warning, and air-defense systems, to protect the main base from missile and drone attacks. Yet, inexplicitly and recklessly they decided to only lease Diego Garcia. And¥ Burnham, the droves of civil servants in both Number 10s, and all the Labour MPs know the rotten and deceptive Chagos deal increases the dangers to the lives of the British service personnel, and our NATO allies personnel, in the strategically important Central Indian Ocean region. To double down and keep pushing the deal with that knowledge is utterly shameful. Mauritius will control the France-sized airspace above the Chagos Archipelago if the deal goes through. In April this year, Mauritius denied the Taiwanese president's plane permission to fly in its airspace enroute to Africa at China's request. Mauritius being a signatory of the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, together with several clauses in the Chagos deal, significantly limit and impact military operations on Diego Garcia. Then there's the bewildering betrayal of the Chagossian people who overwhelmingly wish their homeland to remain British. Is self-determination for the Chagossians the hidden threat to who owns the rights to the potentially vast mineral wealth in the Chagos Archipelago's seabed the reason for the desperation to make the deal with Mauritius? Have promises been made to certain countries or to other 🕵️entities with great power that can't be broken without the most serious of☠️consequences? Why are they so desperate to make the Chagos deal, at any cost, and who benefits?

Scrap the Chagos deal. It is FULL of poison. Starmer and co, were so determined to give Chagos to Mauritius that they ignored every rule and process to get the deal over the line. Chagos was not in the 2024 Labour manifesto, which promised to protect the BOT, and Chagos wasn't mentioned during the election campaign. Starmer secretly hired Jonathan "dodgy dossier" Powell as his special Chagos envoy and will not say when, or whether, he had any security clearance, even when asked those questions directly at PMQs. The FCDO and Powell communicated extensively on Chagos business using Powell's private company email server for at least a month before his appointment was announced. As the status of the strategically vital joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago was affected, the matter, and those individuals involved and all their communications, should have been required to have had the highest level of security clearance and vetting. Starmer broke with tradition to make his close friend, legal mentor, and fellow human-rights lawyer, Richard Hermer, his Attorney General by giving him a peerage so he could sit in the House Of Lords and be part of his government. There is no record of the unelected Hermer having undergone any security vetting at all for his role. When Powell was appointed National Security Advisor on the 8th of November 2024, four days after Trump's Presidential victory, he had not been vetted for the post, according to Starmer's former chief-of-staff Morgan McSweeney's testimony at Emily Thornberry's Foreign Affairs select committee in April this year. Starmer appointed scandal-ridden Lord Mandelson as US ambassador in December 2024, so he could schmooze Trump into going along with the Chagos deal. Mandelson failed to pass vetting, but the appointment was still confirmed, and he took up his duties in Washington DC in January 2025. To justify giving Chagos to Mauritius, Starmer and Hermer decided to accept the International Court of Justice's compulsory jurisdiction as the world's Apex Court and abide by the ICJ's 2019 advisory-only, non-binding ruling that Chagos should be given to Mauritius. The ruling had been obtained after many years of working and judicial lobbying on the matter by Starmer's and Hermer's close friend and legal colleague, Philippe Sands KC, counsel to Mauritius for Chagos since 2010. Placing an International Court Ruling above domestic law fundamentally breaches the core constitutional doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and the UK's established dualist system. Tellingly, after having been Mauritius' lead counsel for Chagos for 14 years, Philippe Sands stood down from his post in December just as the deal was being finalised. The following month, just as the deal was about to be signed off, Lord Hermer recused himself. He refuses to explain why. If And¥ Burnham has any sense at all he will scrap the Chagos deal. The Chagos deal really is FULL of poison.

The Chagos deal does🟥NOT secure the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia. The deal operationally hobbles the base, and increases the dangers to the British and American military personnel, and the civilians who work there, and in the wider Central Indian Ocean region. Diego Garcia's remoteness made it easy to defend in the past. This deal leaves the base horribly vulnerable to the growing threats posed by the new longer-range missiles, and more sophisticated and lethal drones. When Keir Starmer, Lord Hermer and Vijay Rangarajan, the Director General at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, made the deal it was fully understood that the outer islands of the Chagos Archipelago were by far the best locations to deploy early warning, and air-defense systems, to protect the main base from missile and drone attacks. Yet they still decided to lease only Diego Garcia. And¥ Burnham knows the deal increases the dangers to the lives of British service personnel, and our NATO allies personnel, in the strategically important Central Indian Ocean region. To double diwn and push the deal with that knowledge is a disgraceful act of betrayal. While the deal leaves Diego Garcia vulnerable to attack, it also renders the base itself ineffective and operationally hobbled. Mauritius is a signatory of the Pelindaba African Weapon-Free Zone Treaty which bans all nuclear weapons from treaty members' territory. Pelindaba gives each of the more the 40 countries who have signed it the right to inspect the facilities on Diego Garcia if they suspect nuclear arms are being stored there. The UK's nuclear-armed Trident submarines will no longer be able to enter Chagos waters, or visit Diego Garcia which is the only island in the region which has suitable anchorage and facilities for maintenance and restocking provisions, etc. The US's nuclear-armed submarines, ships, and planes will also be banned from Diego Garcia and the Chagos Archipelago's waters. Mauritius gets complete sovereignty over everything, including control of the airspace above the Chagos Archipelago, which at 250,000 square miles is the same size as France. The implications of controlling such a vast area of airspace in a strategically vital region are huge. Mauritius has shown it will ban planes entering its current airspace when China asks.

Scrap the 🏝️Chagos deal. The deal is the problem. Former Prime Minister 👨‍⚖️Starmer and his close friend and colleague, Attorney General 👨‍⚖️ Hermer, decided they were going to give away Chagos. They didn't tell the public, the press or Parliament before or during the 2024 General Election that they intended to give away sovereign British territory. The Labour manifesto did not mention Chagos, but it did promise to protect the British Overseas Territories (BOT). 🕵️Jonathan Powell was hired in secret as Starmer's special Chagos envoy. No one knows when, or if Powell had any security clearance, because Starmer refuses to answer those questions, even at PMQs. It's known Powell used his private company email for Chagos business for at least a month before his appointment was officially announced. The lead counsel for Mauritius since 2010 was 👨‍⚖️Philippe Sands, another close long-time friend and legal colleague of Starmer and Hermer. Sands gained an advisory-only, non-binding 🏛️International Court of Justice Ruling in 2019 that Chagos should be given to Mauritius. Starmer and Hermer made a conscious decision to abide by the ICJ ruling, despite it being advisory and non-binding, and that giving Chagos to Mauritius was against the wishes of the vast majority of the Chagossian people, who want Chagos to remain British. Starmer and Hermer also made the decision to accept the ICJ ruling knowing it threatened the security and effectiveness of the extremely important joint 🪖UK/US military base on Diego Garcia. Hermer told a high-profile UN conference in January this year that the UK government accepted the "compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ", as it is the world's apex court. Starmer tried to rush the deal through the Commons and House Of Lords and make it an Act Of Parliament. However, people instinctively knew a deal where you give another country your sovereign territory and pay them £billions for the privilege🦨tinks. And sure enough, over time the huge flaws in the deal, and the negative and extraordinarily expensive consequences of the deal have been exposed. There's no fixing it. Only lunatics, or the deeply compromised, would even think of trying to complete the deal now. Starmer and Hermer's deal must be consigned to history, and the Chagos Archipelago remain British.

The Chagos deal does🟥NOT secure the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia. The deal operationally hobbles the base, and increases the dangers to the British and American military personnel, and the civilians who work there, and in the wider Central Indian Ocean region. Diego Garcia's remoteness made it easy to defend in the past. This deal leaves the base horribly vulnerable to the growing threats posed by the new longer-range missiles, and more sophisticated and lethal drones. When Keir Starmer, Lord Hermer and Vijay Rangarajan, the Director of the FCDO made the deal it was fully understood that the outer islands of the Chagos Archipelago were by far the best locations to deploy early warning, and air-defense systems, to protect the main base from missile and drone attacks. Yet they still decided to lease only Diego Garcia. And¥ Burnham knows the deal increases the dangers to the lives of British service personnel, and our NATO allies personnel, in the strategically important Central Indian Ocean region. To double down and push the deal with that knowledge is a disgraceful act of betrayal. While the deal leaves Diego Garcia vulnerable to attack, it also renders the base itself ineffective and operationally hobbled. Mauritius is a signatory of the Pelindaba African Weapon-Free Zone Treaty which bans all nuclear weapons from treaty members' territory. Pelindaba gives each of the more than 40 countries who have signed it the right to inspect the facilities on Diego Garcia if they suspect nuclear arms are being stored there. The UK's nuclear-armed Trident submarines will no longer be able to enter Chagos waters, or visit Diego Garcia which is the only island in the region which has suitable anchorage and facilities for maintenance and restocking provisions, etc. The US's nuclear-armed submarines, ships, and planes will also be banned from Diego Garcia and the Chagos Archipelago's waters. Mauritius gets complete sovereignty over everything, including control of the airspace above the Chagos Archipelago, which at 250,000 square miles is the same size as France. The implications of controlling such a vast area of airspace in a strategically vital region are huge. Mauritius has shown it will ban planes entering its current airspace when China asks.

Here is why🏝️Chagos is so significant. Ratifying the Chagos Treaty will create a legal precedent that will open the floodgates to an unending stream of claims for reparations for slavery and compensation for the British Empire's perceived historic "sins". The government claims the Chagos Archipelago must be given to Mauritius under International Law, even though the ICJ ruling they cite is advisory only and non-binding. The government also claims it must take this course to secure legal certainty for the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia to continue operating on a 99-year lease costing £billions of UK taxpayers' money. Powerful legal arguments counter both claims. Giving away Chagos to Mauritius, citing International Law, would be extraordinarily stupid and dangerous. Ratifying the Chagos Treaty creates a legal precedent that will leave the UK virtually defenseless against a myriad of future massive lawsuits predicated on International Law. And the really sick thing is that, International Law was made, and then promoted as superior to national law, by British barristers and close friends, 🧑‍⚖️Lord Richard Hermer, 👨‍⚖️Professor Philippe Sands, and 👨‍⚖️Sir Keir Starmer; the legal eagles who drew up the Chagos Treaty, Inspired by their hero and mentor, the acclaimed academic and international lawyer 🧑‍⚖️Sir Ian Brownlie, a former member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Hermer, Sands, and Starmer spent many lucrative years on the International court circuit creating new laws with their advocacy in nascent jurisdictions, often staffed by inexperienced judges and panelists from small and developing countries. The Chagos deal must be scrapped, or it will destroy the UK.

And¥ Burnham must SCRAP the 🏝️Chagos deal. Continuing the deal will encourage ever more demands for reparations and compensation for perceived historic British sins. If the Chagos deal is ratified, a precedent will be set, and that will open the floodgates to a never-ending stream of claims under International Law that will be exceedingly difficult to defend. Can you guess who helped to make International Law and the rulings of International Courts so influential? That was British barristers and close friends, 🧑‍⚖️Lord Richard Hermer, 🧑‍⚖️Professor Philippe Sands, and 🧑‍⚖️Sir Keir Starmer, who plied their trade extensively on the international court circuit for decades. Their hero and mentor was the acclaimed academic and international lawyer, and one-time member of the Communist Party, 🧑‍⚖️Sir Ian Brownlie. The international cases Brownlie, Hermer, Sands, and Starmer took on, and the judicial rulings they obtained, created the laws, precedents, and frameworks that underpin how International cases and legal issues are resolved. Hermer, Sands, and Starmer spent many happy years creating International Law with their advocacy in nascent jurisdictions frequently overseen by unsophisticated inexperienced judges and panelists from developing countries. Using International Law to override National Law proved to be a very lucrative business model. Not surprisingly, having created much of it, Starmer, Sands and Hermer are very keen to promote International Law.

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The Chagos deal is being pushed hard by the FCDO and people who have worked for the FCDO like Cabinet Secretary, Antonia Romeo, and National Security Advisor, Jonathan Powell. The FCDO has a VERY interesting history with Mauritius, including using Mauritius-registered front companies to avoid paying millions in taxes on its investments. Read 👇 AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL CDC goes offshore, 30 Apr 2010 A mining company in which the British government is the biggest shareholder is using Mauritius-registered front companies to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes on its mineral operations in Senegal and violating its own investment code. The CDC, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation, is owned by Britain’s Department for International Development; it has invested £10 million (US$15.25 mn.) in the Australian-headquartered Mineral Deposits Limited through its investment fund Actis. africa-confidential.com/arti…

No one in the Labour Party dared to stop And¥ Burnham becoming Prime Minister. They all stood down to make him their leader. Not one of them had the cohunes to challenge And¥. But their is a chance now for Labour MPs to get up off their knees, show some courage, and begin restoring their party's reputation. All it will take is to oppose the treacherous Chagos deal. The deal stinks, and the country hates it. The first Labour MP to say, "It's not in the national interest, and should be scrapped", will be a hero. Once the dam breaks, they will quickly be joined by many other Labour MPs who feel the same way.

The Foreign Commonwealth Development Office has a VERY interesting history with Mauritius, including using Mauritius-registered front companies to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes on its investments. ⚠️See the attached 20-seconds-to-read Africa Confidential article below. A powerful unelected group with strong connections to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is deeply involved behind the scenes in pushing the Chagos deal. 🧧Antonia Romeo, the Cabinet Secretary, who advised Burnham to continue Starmer's treacherous Chagos deal, has held major positions in the FCDO. 🧧Jonathan Powell, the National Security Advisor, who also pressed Burnham hard to continue with the Chagos deal, for which he was Keir Starmer's Special Envoy, had a long career at the FCDO, which funded his private consultancy company. 🧧Vijay Rangarajan: was FCDO Director and led the civil service team during the Chagos negotiations with Mauritius. 🧧Nishi Dholakia: was appointed Commissioner for British Indian Ocean Territory (aka Chagos) in December 2024, previously he was Deputy Director at FCDO, and trade counsellor at the Beijing Embassy. AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL CDC goes offshore, 30 Apr 2010 A mining company in which the British government is the biggest shareholder is using Mauritius-registered front companies to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes on its mineral operations in Senegal and violating its own investment code. The CDC, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation, is owned by Britain’s Department for International Development; it has invested £10 million (US$15.25 mn.) in the Australian-headquartered Mineral Deposits Limited through its investment fund Actis. One board executive, James Murray Grant, is an ex-CDC executive. Mineral Deposits mines gold from the inland Sabodala region and ilmenite and zircon – used to make paints and abrasives – in a $400 mn. project on the Grande Côte north of the capital, Dakar. africa-confidential.com/arti…

HOW long has the United Kingdom left? In 1997, when Tony Blair introduced devolution for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, it was justified as a means of preventing secession by bringing power closer to people. At the time, many ordinary people feared devolution would have the opposite effect and would lead to the Union breaking up. In his first week as Prime Minister, And¥ Burnham divided England into north and south by creating Number 10 North in Manchester. Burnham quickly followed up his north-south divide by creating 14 Super Mayors in the English regions, with powers to overrule local mayors on matters such as housing plans and regeneration. Burnham managed to get all of that, and a lot more, done before facing his first PMQs. At his second PMQs on Wednesday (conveniently, his third PMQs is not until October 14th because of the conference recess), Burnham said that the rules governing when a repeat of the 2014 vote for Scottish Independence can be held should be "exactly the same" as those for an Irish reunification referendum. The Prime Minster made the comment when questioned on the Good Friday Agreement by Scottish Nationalist MP Chris Law. The agreement states that the UK Northern Ireland Secretary "SHALL" call a referendum on Irish reunification if it looks likely that the people would vote in support. Understandably, the Nationalist First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been encouraged by And¥ Burnham saying that they will be granted referendums if opinion polls show there is majority support in their countries for independence. The leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are now working on a joint "memorandum of understanding " to demand referendums and to break up the UK.

🚨 What Angela Rayner just said on #BBCLauraK is TERRIFYING. Labour wants to change electoral laws and apply the new rules retrospectively. Think about what that means. You do something completely legal today, then five years later, politicians change the rules and apply them backwards. Today it’s political donations. What is it tomorrow? Your taxes? Your business? Something you posted online? This from a country where 60,000+ people have already been arrested over social media posts and the Government wants to restrict jury trials. Now they want to change laws and apply them after something had already happened legally and make it illegal. This isn’t democracy. It’s tyrannical and people need to wake up to where this is heading.

BIGGER than England. Correction: The additional area of seabed recently granted to Mauritius around 🏝️Rodrigues Island in the Macarenas Archipelago is actually 56,757 square miles; more than ten times bigger than I stated in my original post. For comparison, England is 50,313 square miles. I misplaced the comma when converting the UN's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) figure of 147,000 square kilometers into square miles.

Here's a 🦹sinister angle on And¥ Burnham's VISITORS Tax. Divide and conquer. 15-minute cities. Autonomous zones. Ethnic Enclaves. Devolution isn't evolution; it's revolution. First, And¥ Burnham opened Number 10 North, making Manchester a de facto 2nd capital city, and dividing the country into North and South. Second, And¥ Burnham created new regional Super Mayors with huge new powers over smaller local authorities, including housing planning permissions and regeneration projects. Third, And¥ Burnham gave massive new powers to his Cabinet Secretary, Antonia Romeo, to override all other top departmental civil servants and to order them to do what the government demands. Fourth, And¥ Burnham made his wife the UK's First Lady, usurping the Queen. Fifth, And¥ Burnham is giving local mayors power to tax visitors to their fiefdoms. All hail, Admiral General Prime Minister And¥.