230. Britain’s Last Colony: Trump, Brexit, and Russia-Ukraine (Ep 2)

Empire

Jack Davenport

History

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The future of the Chagos Islands hangs in the balance as world leaders debate how really owns the islands and who should be allowed to live there. Since the 1970s, the evicted Chagossian people have been using legal channels to fight their expulsion from their Indian Ocean homes, challenging Britain's claim to its last colony. Led by Olivier Bancoult, a Chagossian activist expelled from Peros Banhos in the 1960s, hundreds of people have been campaigning to be granted the right to return to their land. Despite winning their case in October 2024, the election of US President Donald Trump has thrown the status of the Chagos Islands again into jeopardy. So, as the weeks roll on since Trump's inauguration, the Chagossian people are asking: when will Britain let us go home? Listen as William and Anita are once again joined by barrister, writer and academic, Philippe Sands, to discuss the uncertain future of the Chagos Islands. Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [email protected] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community.
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0:43.5	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Hello and welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnon and me William Drimple.
1:04.7	And once again, we are joined by The Man Who Matters at the moment.
1:08.9	We're talking about the Chegos Islands and the history of
1:11.4	why everybody is scrapping over it today and why it's in your headlines quite as often as it is.
1:17.2	Philippe Sands, author, broadcaster, human rights lawyer is with us again. And thank you very much.
1:21.6	You did kind of slacken our jaws with some of the facts you were throwing at us in the last
1:26.4	episode. The images that you left us with, dogs being abandoned and swimming after their owners,
1:31.5	people being separated by virtue of the colour of their skin,
1:34.4	whether they'd be over on the deck or under the deck.
1:36.9	I mean, these are things that are unthinkable, and they're going on that recently.
1:41.1	And the crucial detail we didn't quite get to, which is that some of them end up in Crawley. Are you been desperate to get that in? I'm very poor. I've always been keyed on the
1:47.8	Crawley element in the story. It's really important. What happens is, I mean, the community
1:52.6	initially sets up in Mauritius and in Seychelles and some are then given the right of abode
2:00.0	in the United Kingdom.
	...

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