Altruism isn't the priority - just the pitch. The real priority is to ensure Tristan Da Cunha remains property of the UK - which, if the colony were to fail, would be immediately endangered. This is why the imperial military is involved, not civilian organizations - the military target is to ensure the island remains the property of the UK.
We have obligations to provide services like this to the people living in our overseas territories, and you won’t find many people who’ll oppose that.
Wow, logistics to <remote place> are very expensive! We could spend that money better in the cities!
Wow, logistics in <city> is expensive! We could spend that money better in rural areas!
I read about a new road tunnel in London last year, a ten-digit price tag for about 1km of road IIRC. I'm 100% sure some people suggested that that money could have been better spent in rural areas.
Quiet, bland execution in government will get you voted out. Technocrats tend to come in after corruption, but they don’t usually last.
One thing I often ask myself in these situations: What do the inhabitants on these islands actually do?
There are 259 of them in this case.
Are they self-sustaining? How do they pay for stuff the want to import? Do they live off the cruise ships they supply? And do people generally stay there or do young people generally move to mainland?
Edit: For economy, it looks like they live off exporting langustas.
Generally the modern day population of these types of islands are simply cover for the government to maintain political control of an area of ocean surrounding them. Same deal with the Falklands, Orkney/Shetland, etc. To that end their entire existence is more or less subsidised because of this.
By the way, Skara Brae is worth seeing if you are at all interested in history. I'd rate it at least on the same level as Stonehenge.
Looking at the position of the Falklands on a map however ... different story.
My god there actually is an island called Inaccessible Island! That's fantastic.
The general rule is that the Americans don't fly during the winter but they do tend to downplay and not publicize the times when they do fly.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/mcmurdo-statio...
- do not get on a cruise ship
- do not get off at a remote island
There's probably something to be said for the fact that TDC is a small, remote community, so it shouldn't be surprising that its website is reminiscent of a smaller, more communal web... but I'm not going to try to read too much into it and let the story stand on its own.
They now have a fast Starlink connection, but I’m glad they’ve kept the website as it is.
The distance of 2700 km a typical small ship - like say this Costa Guard cutter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend-class_cutter and sure South Africa do have ships like this - would have made in 2-3 days. No risk and probably much cheaper compare to the described paratrooping.
Though i do think that the paratrooping was nice, just to show that as a civilization we can.
On the other side i think it also shows our civilization failure to develop long range VTOL - say like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasecki_16H_Pathfinder - helicopters with pusher have been reaching 2000 km range, and additional fuel tanks would have gotten such one to 3000km, yet we just don't have such helicopters (or other long range VTOLs) around.
On windswept shores where oceans foam,
Far from the bustle and noise of home,
The island watched the grey skies part,
With hope returning to every heart.
Across the vastness the RAF flew through,
With medicine, medics, and military too,
Parachuting in with skill and courage on our shore,
The impossible was accomplished to the core.
Tristan da Cunha, proud and small,
A community who always stand together through it all,
Neighbours helping each other, such an amazing sight,
Hoping everything done before the loss of daylight.Spelling mistkaes, shit grammar, typos, et,c, just leeet em rock.