Empire Returns the Keys Sixty Years Late, Complains About the Locksmith

Spectator Australia · Adam Holloway · Friday 17 April 2026

Empire Returns the Keys Sixty Years Late, Complains About the Locksmith

The Spectator runs multiple pieces attacking Starmer over the Chagos Islands handover to Mauritius, focusing on the Mandelson connection and treatment of islanders while skipping the colonial question entirely.

The Spectator's run four Starmer pieces in a single edition like a dog with a trouser leg — and still hasn't told you why Britain needed a military base on someone else's island in the first place. Empire hands back the keys sixty years late and the complaint is the eviction notice wasn't polite enough. Mate, Palmerston would have at least sent a gunboat. Starmer sent Mandelson.

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