Falklands News

More than 2,300 guests will attend Margaret Thatcher's funeral today, including 50 Falklands Veterans.

Speaking to Daybreak, Falklands veteran Simon Weston said: "Whatever else goes on and whatever people want to say about today somebody's died."

He added, "we're talking about somebody who is dead, it's not going to affect her a single jot, all people will remember is the lack of dignity that we have shown."

• UK
• Falklands
• Simon Weston

An Argentine company has created a new version of the 'Counter Strike' video game in which players fight British "terrorists" on the Falkland Islands.

The new setting attracted over 9,000 downloads within the first few hours of its release.

A spokesman for Dattatec, who created the setting, said: "It's a game – we say so in the opening credits – and we have certainly not set out to be provocative."

• World
• Falklands

Ken Clarke, along with Sir Timothy Raison, MP for Aylesbury, are attributed in private papers from 1982 with the view: "Hopes nobody thinks we are going to fight the Argentinians. We should blow up a few ships but nothing more."

Lady Thatcher had marked the comment with two blue biro lines.

Sir John Page was said to be "desperately depressed" by the situation and Ian Gilmour, later Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar, said: "We are making a big mistake. It will make Suez look like common sense."

Five MPS urged Lady Thatcher to "keep calm" adding "we can get away without a fight" while others were "all taking a hard line".A similar note the following day described Stephen Dorrell as "very wobbly".

It adds: "Will only support the fleet as a negotiating ploy. If they will not negotiate we should withdraw."Meanwhile referring to Keith Stainton, the note reads: "Intends to attack the Government. His wife has large interests in the Falklands."

• Politics
• Falklands
• Margaret Thatcher

Until now the backroom deliberations within the Conservative party over the Falklands have remained largely private but the notes are among those released by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust as it opens its files from a year which came to define Lady Thatcher's career.

They range from Ken Clarke, then a junior minister, arguing to "blow up a few ships but nothing more" to West Devon MP Peter Mills who warned "my constituents want blood".

On April 6, four days after the incursion, the Chief Whip, Michael Jopling, prepared a note for the Prime Minister saying: "You may like to have general re-action to events in the Falkland Islands."

• Politics
• Ken Clarke
• Falklands

A hand-written note by Baroness Thatcher gives some hints about how she grappled with her response to the Duke of York's deployment as part of the Falklands task force.

The note, prepared after April 2, 1982, possibly in preparation for a speech or press conference, shows that the Prime Minister settled on a brief but broadly supportive position.

"If asked about Prince Andrew it is the express wish of The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and of [Prince Andrew himself, that if the Invincible sails he sails with her," she wrote.However, this is followed by several sentences obscured by felt tip.

The deleted passage begins "I should not withhold consent".This itself has been amended to "I cannot withhold consent" before again being crossed out.The words which follow are difficult to decipher but end: "our courage are priceless assets which our Royal Family has (sic) themselves in abundance."

Lady Thatcher prepared the note for her own consumption and at that time had no reason to believe it would ever be made public.It is not therefore thought the crossing out represented any significant change of heart, simply her desire to ensure she delivered the correct message.

• Politics
• Margaret Thatcher
• Falklands

Prime Minister David Cameron has said Pope Francis was wrong when he said last year Britain had "usurped" the Falkland Islands from Argentina.

Mr Cameron said the recent pro-British result of the referendum on the Islands' future had sent "a message to everyone in the world", including the former archbishop of Buenos Aires.

"I disagree with him, respectfully," he said in reference to the new pope, joking: "The white smoke over the Falklands was pretty clear."

• World
• Falklands
• David Cameron

Pope Francis once told Argentine veterans that those who were killed in the Falkland Islands conflict were "reclaiming what is theirs" and branded Britain as "usurpers", according to the Daily Telegraph.

Jorge Bergoglio, the then Buenos Aires Cardinal, told a Mass on April 2 last year: "We come to pray for those who have fallen, sons of the homeland who set out to defend his mother, the homeland, to claim the country that is theirs and they were usurped.

He added: "Many young people were there and could not return.

"Others returned but none could forget. Many scars, many families destroyed by permanent absence or a return cut short. The country needs to remember them all."

Read: Pope Francis profile.

• World
• Falklands
• David Cameron