The comments were taken as support of Argentina's claim to the islands and evoked strong reactions in the British media, with one satirical article in "The Daily Telegraph" requesting that Penn "return his Malibu estate to the Mexicans". Falklands War veteran and political activist Simon Weston stated "Sean Penn does not know what he is talking about and, frankly, he should shut up. His [Penn's] views are irrelevant and it only serves to fuel the fire of the Argentinians and get them more pumped up" while British Conservative MP Patrick Mercer dismissed Penn's statement as "moronic." Lauren Collins of "The New Yorker" wrote: "As of today, Sean Penn is the new Karl Lagerfeld—the man upon whom, having disrespected something dear to the United Kingdom, the British papers most gleefully pile contempt".