We took her to the wonderful King’s Singers’ concert at the Cathedral on Saturday night, enjoyed a great Sunday lunch in a pub at Burcombe, saw The Artist in the evening, visited Christchurch Priory and harbour on Monday, and finished her visit with an excellent dinner in Fisherton Street.

Had she arrived a day earlier, she could have joined us to see Design for Living at the Playhouse. We're so lucky to have such a strong musical and theatrical tradition in this city. We are less lucky in having such high parking charges imposed upon us by officials based 30 miles away. Parking the car cost so much less in Christchurch that even after buying fuel it was almost cheaper to shop there than here.

Here we go again?

Thirty years ago this week I spotted a brief report that bilateral talks about the Falkland Islands between the United Kingdom and Argentina at the UN had collapsed, and that Argentina had warned she would act to “rectify” the situation. So I wrote a note to the Foreign Editor correctly predicting an Argentine invasion, but wrongly advising that this wouldn’t happen before June. In the event in mid-March so-called scrap-metal dealers landed on South Georgia to raise the Argentine flag, and started a bitter campaign that cost hundreds of lives.

The lesson of the Falklands was that just because an issue was unimportant to us that didn’t make it unimportant to others, but it’s one we seem to have forgotten. The grievance over the Islas Malvinas unites all Argentines, and to me it seems obvious that in Buenos Aires they’re planning something to mark the 30th anniversary. From their viewpoint there are numerous plus-factors. The Government's crazy decision to scrap the Harrier-force and all three aircraft-carriers means that if we lose control of Mount Pleasant airfield we can no longer put together a Task Force to retrieve the situation.

Our best troops are tied down in Afghanistan, US foreign policy faces pre-election paralysis, Iran’s threatening the Strait of Hormuz, the Eurozone’s falling apart, it’s the Queen’s diamond jubilee and the Olympics present a major security problem involving thousands of troops. Something’s going to happen down there. It will be interesting to see what it is.

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