The islanders are all Brits. We promise to defend 'em at hang the expense and we do their foreign dealings for them. They are scarcely independent, are they? We abandoned the islands in the late 18th century and swanned back in in the 19th when we were marauding around the world doing what we liked. So we set up a colony thousands of miles from the British Isles but very close to South America and then claim the right to self-determination for a bunch of Brits. We have steadfastly refused to negotiate this morally-dubious position time and time again. It's very difficult to make the moral argument that we should have dominion over territory so far from home and so close to others' home. Imagine an exclusively Chinese colony occupying Orkney or an exclusively Russian colony occupying the Isle Of Man...