Simon Jenkins fails to acknowledge that the Falklands have moved on (The Falklands can no longer remain as Britain's expensive nuisance, 26 February). Argentina's endeavours to force its colonial ambitions on a small country, against the freely expressed wishes of its people, ignore our basic right to self-determination.

"Anyone who studies the tortuous history and law of the Falklands will know that Argentina's claim to the islands was certainly strong," Jenkins says. But their claim to a territory 300 miles away is neither logical nor valid. Falklands inhabitants did not replace an indigenous population because there was none. The islands were claimed by Britain in 1765, long before Argentina existed as a country, and have been permanently settled since 1833. Some families, like mine, can now boast eight or nine generations on the islands. The Falklands are an overseas territory of the UK, with internal matters governed by a democratically elected legislative assembly, of which I am a member.

Jenkins talks of Argentina regularly protesting about their rights to the islands to "the UN's decolonisation committee, supported by other post-imperial states in South and North America". But the annual vote in this committee is a sham – the Islands are not a colony and the debate there is therefore an irrelevance. More relevant are the European convention on human rights and the international covenant on civil and political rights, both of which endorse the principles of self-determination.

We have repeatedly attempted to work with Argentina, and agreed a joint declaration on co-operation on oil exploration in 1995. This was renounced by Argentina in 2007. Co-operation on sustainable fisheries through a joint commission was a way for the Falklands and Argentina to conserve South Atlantic stocks through the exchange of scientific data and the setting of sustainable catch levels. Argentina not only withdrew from the commission but set unsustainably high quotas in some fish stocks.

Jenkins states that "Argentina has not threatened military action over the Ocean Guardian" (the oil rig currently drilling in our waters). But it is clear that our large neighbour is attempting to achieve by economic warfare what it failed to achieve by military means.

It has threatened sanctions against companies holding licences to fish in Falklands waters and tried to exclude our representatives from participating at international conferences. It prevents charter flights from other South American countries flying to the islands, and is now attempting to disrupt our oil exploration by threats to hinder shipping. These are hardly the acts of a friendly and peaceful neighbour.

We remain eternally grateful to those who liberated us from the Argentine aggression in 1982. By referring to that time as "the silliest of wars", Jenkins insults their memory and diminishes their incredible achievement.

Jenkins believes us to be an "expensive legacy of Empire". He should be aware that the Islands are self-financing – except for defence, which is purely because of the continued Argentine claim to my country. And our government has expressed the wish to contribute more to these costs, should oil be discovered in commercial quantities.