Don’t like the cut of the Union’s Gib
With the row about Gibraltar, I bet the Cayman Islands, Channel Islands and other UK tax havens, as well as the City of London, are now taking an even greater interest in the Brexit negotiations than they were.
Spain is the only country within the EU that was likely to oppose an independent Scotland joining the EU as they don’t want to see Catalonia and the Basque country go for independence.
By allowing Spain a veto on any Brexit deal that involves Gibraltar, EU leaders would thus be in more of a position to be able to offer Scotland the chance to join the EU, should they vote for independence.
Donald Tusk is giving Theresa May a masterclass in international politics, while the issue of Gibraltar also shows how hard negotiations for trade deals will be for the UK outside the EU. Theresa May should not have taken such a bullish approach to Brexit and should have offered the EU a peace token to show goodwill.
Duncan Anderson, Immingham, North East Lincs
# The EU has no authority to give the power of veto to Spain over of a sovereign state. This is tantamount to a declaration of war since Gibraltar is a British protectorate and as such comes under the British sovereign. What next, will it decide to annexe Scotland? We know the EU is trying to punish Britain over Brexit and now we can see clearly why being in the EU is to be under the boot of a federal dictatorship. We should learn from what happened to Greece during its financial and political crisis. It becomes obvious what the EU is all about – the bureaucratic crushing of rights, liberty and independence. S T Vaughan, Yardley Wood, Birmingham # In the circumstances I don’t think Britain can complain about Spain’s attempt to “snatch” Gibraltar which, the last time I looked, was part of the Spanish mainland.
If Britain is so determined to leave Europe it cannot expect to cling on to a tiny part, simply because it represents huge UK financial interests.
I assume Farage, Johnson, Gove and co realised Gibraltarian sovereignty would be called into question if Britain voted to leave Europe. After all, Brexit means Brexit, doesn’t it ? Colin Gatrell, Bonchurch, Isle of Wight # The EU is showing its true colours as a bullish, mean, nasty and corrupt organisation with the likes of Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker trying to throw their weight around over Gibraltar.
It’s also obvious they are trying to scare smaller nations like Malta into not following our example of leaving the club. Mrs May needs to get tough because with so-called friends like these, who needs enemies? Bill Grundy, East London # A great deal was made by the Leave campaigners about taking back control of our borders, but already we can see problems emerging between Gibraltar and Spain, and Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic. Brexit was always an ideological dream of Tory Eurosceptic MPs and UKIP, but the reality is likely to prove more of a nightmare for the rest of us. Christine Hanks, Woking, Surrey