; ...Education and Healthcare. And the Sabre-Rattling Argie Neighbours

Summary

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THE bar is packed, the beer and the cash are flowing freely. Burly oil men down pint after pint to celebrate a 'strike' on the rig 120 miles away across the freezing ocean.

Tonight, like every other night, the air is thick with accents - from Russia, Poland and Scotland - the steady thrum of conversation broken only by bursts of laughter, the beeping of the cash register and the sharp slam of the till drawer.

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Extract

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; ...Education and Healthcare. And the Sabre-Rattling Argie Neighbours

Stanley, capital of the Falkland Islands, may be sovereign British territory. The union flags in the Victory pub make that clear enough. But there is no recession here. The oncebarren rock, defended at the cost of 255 lives during the 1982 war, is undergoing an economic revolution.

In the past, the name 'Falklands' summed up images of a windswept archipelago covered in thousands of sheep and penguins, and populated by a rugged rural people rather cruelly dubbed 'Bennys' by British soldiers after the simple soul in Crossroads.

But in the nearly 30 years since the war, the place has undergone an astonishing transformation.

The population now enjoys a higher average income than the UK, the education and health system is second to none and a booming fishing trade has created at least seven 'squidionaires'.

In recent days the Falklands, 8,000 miles from London but just 300 fro...

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