Steve Richards: Will Nobody Challenge the Falklands War Myths?

Steve Richards is chief political columnist for The Independent newspaper. 

At a time when many assumptions formed in the 1980s are being challenged, the Falklands is the source of renewed tension, another issue that can't just be confined to the recent past. The Falklands War was a defining event during that decade, the subject of instant mythologising and one of the few episodes in Margaret Thatcher's career highlighted in the film The Iron Lady.

What it defined is no longer quite so clear. As the ongoing economic crisis places an intense critical spotlight on the light regulation that began in the Thatcher era, there is a sudden wariness about the Falklands. What seemed to be a decisive military triumph for the Iron Lady is not so decisive as it seemed.

The tensions arise partly because the 30th anniversary of the conflict is only a few months away. In Argentina, the planned events here are seen as an act of provocation, so much so that the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has stressed they are a commemoration rather than a celebration. But in Argentina, other initiatives, such as the assignment of Prince William to the Falklands, are seen as part of a pattern in which the UK becomes more assertive while Argentina – with indications of robust support from nearby countries – feels the need to renew its claims to the islands...