THIS column could have gone a number of ways. A pleasant meander on Christmas holidays, a regretful ponder on Brexit, or a grouse at having to end the year printing the PM’s condescending speech on the Penguin News front page.

When I mentioned this in the office though Mark said “you’d better read my column first.” I did and I’m grateful he delivered me from dealing at length with the latter.

Brexit it is then. And I think that issue is particularly frustrating for us because, let’s face it, we’ve been unfailingly bloody polite; in public at least.
We’ve (as in the Falklands ‘position’) always acknowledged that Brexit has largely been an issue for the people actually living in the UK. In that terribly British way we haven’t made a fuss. At the same time we have in a clear and dignified manner pointed out that Brexit impacts us mightily. It’s commonly known that it will result in tariffs of between six and 18 % for fisheries exports to the EU – a potential £10 million hit – and an average tariff of 42 per cent for meat exports to the EU.

But still we’re polite.

I have had Brexiteers on Twitter ‘Falkland-splain’ my own country and economy to me. Tell me ‘Aksherly’ Brexit can’t possibly have been bad for the Falklands and will ultimately be beneficial to us.

They weren’t able to explain why hefty loss in income might be advantageous though – apparently my little female brain just wouldn’t cope with the complexities of the advanced premises of their arguments on that one.

Despite this provocation I have never fully lost my rag about Brexit on very public social network sites like Twitter; a part of me worried it might be jumped on by Argentine newspapers revelling in any condemnation of British democratic processes. (There have been mornings I’ve awoken to the discovery that my annoyed tweets at Argentine politicians have found their way to Clarin or La Nacion with an accompanying commentary – so it’s not out of the question).

But the truth is we knew that Brexit would have a negative outcome for the Falklands. Of course it likely will be for the UK too but at least they had the opportunity to negotiate their misfortune.

The great irony is we’ll probably weather it better than the UK will.
But right to the end we’re still courteous. Despite being treated like children by the Prime Minister in his Christmas speech and like idiots in his Question Time public assurances (see PN December 1); despite our pleas and arguments never even being tabled at the European Union and nobody caring for our position in advance of Brexit. Despite this being a million miles from the outcome we hoped for, still our well bred response is that we are frustrated and disappointed.

It is more than disappointing, it’s shitty and unjust.

Is that rude? I think it’s warranted