Gibraltar steady against ‘Brexit’

Analogy sparks war of words

GIBRALTAR, April 4, (Agencies): “Brexit Bombshell — but Gibraltar will not surrender” stated the Gibraltar Panorama on Monday as the British enclave’s future took centre stage in the wrangling over Britain’s break from the European Union.

Residents of “the Rock” on the southern tip of Spain said they hoped for London’s support as Prime Minister Theresa May’s government negotiated the divorce.

But they also adopted a typically British stance on the row — keep calm and carry on.

“Spain is going to jump at this opportunity to try and take advantage of the situation but when it comes to the crunch I think we’ve got to take one step at a time and not overreact, be calm,” said firefighter Liam Byrne, speaking in a street on the peninsula.

Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly in last June’s referendum to stay as part of the EU but Britain’s decision as a whole to leave potentially takes the overseas territory with it.

But an EU draft position published on Friday said any agreement on Gibraltar had to be agreed between Britain and Spain, which has long claimed sovereignty over the enclave.

On Sunday a former British minister, Michael Howard, suggested Britain would be ready to go to war with Spain to defend the outpost — a display of saber-rattling that evoked memories of the 1982 war with Argentina over the Falklands.

That drew a rebuke from Brian Reyes, a columnist for the Gibraltar Chronicle, who said Howard’s words helped no one.

“This is a time for firm but measured diplomacy, not war rhetoric,” Reyes wrote. “What we need is a Rock-solid commitment from the UK that it will include Gibraltar in any future trade deal with the EU.”

Howard

Treaty

Captured by Britain in 1704 and ceded in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Gibraltar has long been a bone of contention between London and Madrid. The border was closed for many years during the Franco dictatorship.

In a 2002 referendum, Gibraltarians rejected by 98 percent a proposal for joint British-Spanish sovereignty.

Once a major British military base, the territory of 33,000 people is now an off-shore financial center drawing funds and insurance companies with its attractive tax and regulatory regime.

It has a strong flavour of Britishness, with pubs named “The Gibraltar Arms”’ and “The Angry Friar”. One souvenir stall had for sale a red bag with the slogan “Gibraltar. British since 1704”.

Gibraltar was not mentioned in May’s Article 50 letter which triggered the process to leave the bloc last Wednesday.

Ron Westdorp, Managing Director of Gibraltarbased fund Taler Asset Management, said the line in the EU draft which said Spain would have a veto on Gibraltar was not helpful.

“It is upsetting in an extremely early phase of renegotiating these relations,” he told Reuters by telephone. Retiree Alfred Medina was also suspicious of Spain’s motives.

“Even though I voted to leave the EU, I was expecting this from Spain and I just sincerely hope that Britain will back us up and they will take care of us like they’ve done in the past,” he said.

Meanwhile, less than a week after asking for a divorce from the European Union, Britain is talking war.

The dispute over Gibraltar is a conflict of words, not weapons — a matter of bellicose headlines in Britain and bemusement in Spain. But it’s a sign of how rough the road ahead could be as the UK extricates itself from the 28-nation bloc.

The rocky 2.6 sq mile (6.7 sq km) enclave at the tip of the Iberian peninsula has been a British territory — and cause of friction between the UK and Spain — since 1713.

The latest spat was sparked by draft Brexit negotiating guidelines drawn up by the EU, which said no future agreement between Britain and the bloc would apply to Gibraltar unless both the UK and Spain agreed.

Territory

Officials in Gibraltar accused Spain of using Brexit to force negotiations on the status of the territory, against the wishes of the 32,000 Gibraltarians, who overwhelmingly want to remain British.

Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, accused Spain of taking a “predatory attitude.”

Some pro-Brexit voices in Britain went even farther.

Former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard said May would defend Gibraltar as her predecessor Margaret Thatcher did the Falkland Islands.

Howard told the BBC on Sunday that in 1982, “another woman prime minister sent a task force halfway across the world to protect another small group of British people against another Spanish-speaking country. And I’m absolutely clear that our current woman prime minister will show the same resolve in relation to Gibraltar as he predecessor did.”

Howard spoke on the 35th anniversary of Argentina’s invasion of the Falklands, a South Atlantic archipelago that has been British since 1833. Britain retook the islands — known as the Malvinas to the Argentines — in a brief war that killed 649 Argentine troops, 255 British soldiers and three islanders.

Howard’s comments raised a few eyebrows in Madrid. Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said “the Spanish government is a little surprised, actually, by the tone that has been generated in Britain, a country traditionally known for its composure.”

He told journalists that on the question of Europe and the issue of Gibraltar, “Britain’s traditional calmness is conspicuous by its absence.”

In Britain, Howard’s comments produced ridicule from opponents and chest-thumping delight from some sections of the press.

Conservative lawmaker Dominic Grieve, the head of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, called the remarks “a little bit apocalyptic.” Former Labour Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said raising the specter of war “is frankly absurd and reeks of 19thcentury jingoism.”

Some newspapers, however, took the comments as a chance to wave the Union Jack. The Daily Mail compared the size of the British and Spanish navies, while the Daily Telegraph quoted a rear admiral as saying Britain “could cripple Spain.”