Just in case you didn’t know, there are at least 8 languages spoken in Spain – Spanish, Euskera [Basque], Catalan, Gallego [Galician], Asturian, Valencian, Leonese and Aragonese. However, some would argue it’d be hard to slip a cigarette paper between some of these. And others would deny they’re spoken ‘in Spain’ as their ‘nation’ is not part of this specious entity. More reasons to be sympathetic to poor Mr Z.
A cartoon in yesterday’s El Mundo depicted Spain as the UK, with the Basque Country labelled ‘Scotland’. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation, of course, but a common one here in Spain. Reality was underlined yesterday when the Liberal Party refused to enter a coalition with the Scottish Nationalist Party unless it dropped its plan for a referendum on independence. So, the SNP may not enjoy a long day in the sun. On the other hand, politics is a rum business. Vamos a ver.
El Mundo continues to allow its more gullible readers to be defrauded by the sellers of ludicrous slimming products, though never the same one two weeks running. Yesterday’s example was for something which not only allows you to lose all the weight you want but guarantees you’ll never put any of it back on again. Plus you can get a 20% discount off the [unstated] price if you immediately call the premium rate number. Where are the consumers’ organisations in all this?
I’ve decided to delay my compilation of posts on Galician Nationalism and, instead, have opted for a shorter and non-controversial subject – GIBRALTAR . . .
2004
I don’t suppose today’s announcement that Spain will seek to vitiate the upcoming European elections in not only Gibraltar but also the UK is entirely unconnected with March’s general election.
The Spanish government professes to be very annoyed by events in Gibraltar. If he is to be believed, the new President - Mr Zapatero – has not been irritated by anything in his first few months in office to match the ‘triple insult’ of sending Princess Anne, a nuclear submarine and the Secretary of Defence to participate in the celebrations around the 300th anniversary of the taking of the Rock by Britain. It’s very hard – nay, impossible – to convince anyone Spanish that the UK Foreign Office has been trying for decades to get rid of Gibraltar and that British governments of any stamp would be only too pleased to see the back of it. What is required is not so much quiet as silent diplomacy. The mistake Spain makes – and will go on making – is to mark its annoyance with some futile gesture - such as temporarily closing the border - which allows the scabrous UK tabloid press to bring out the mob under the banner of patriotism. That’s a lot of voters for any Prime Minister to worry about. Can’t see things changing for decades, myself. Spanish voters demand provocative actions and UK voters demand insulting responses.
Well, it’s nice to see El Mundo agreeing with me about the government’s rather hysterical response to the celebrations in Gibraltar. As the editorial writer concludes, all the high-blown nonsense makes one nostalgic for the days of No Comment.
There was a nice article on the Gibraltar issue on one of the local papers today, with a UK-tabloid-style ‘8 Things You Need to Know about Gibraltar’. I was most interested in Q8: “Is there any difference between Gibraltar and [the Spanish North African enclaves of] Ceuta and Melilla?” Answer: “Yes, there is. Ceuta and Melilla were never Moroccan. Ceuta has been Spanish since 1415 and Melilla since 1497. However, Morocco cites the doctrine of geographic unity and the contiguousness of states, which disfavours the permanence of the enclaves of said cities.” So, that’s alright then. What used to be ours is ours and what used to be – at least as far as we are concerned - nobody’s remains ours. Stuff Morocco.
Today’s Daily Telegraph rather points up the accuracy of a point I made recently, viz. that British governments would love to get shut of Gibraltar. It turns out that the Heath [Conservative] government of 1973 believed that one of the advantages of joining Europe would be that this eternal problem could be quietly solved. It seems they underestimated the unholy alliance of the pesky Gibraltarians and the British tabloid press.
There was a surprisingly constructive article about Gibraltar in El Mundo today, though I was confused by the author’s description of Sir/St. Thomas More [author, of course, of Utopia] as an ‘English moor’. In other words, an English Arab. There is clearly some confusion here. Either I am not understanding some subtlety in the article or the writer is way off beam.
The Gibraltar row rumbles on, with the new President showing more and more signs of the populism than brought him to power in May. And less and less of the statesmanship that is required. I have yet to see any Spanish commentator – and there have been numerous articles in the national and local press over the past few days – show the slightest awareness of the UK government’s real position and of the problems it has in disposing of Gibraltar. Nor does anyone Spanish ever pose – let alone answer – the question of why the people of Gibraltar should be keen to join Spain when they can see two key regions – Catalunia and the Basque country – doing their utmost to break away from it. I mean, if the UK government is prepared to give away Northern Ireland, can anyone seriously believe that it wants to keep hold of Gibraltar. I think I will write to El Mundo.
I see in the British press that the previous Spanish government was one of the many parties – including Mrs Thatcher’s son – who were involved in the Equatorial Guinea imbroglio. Strangely enough, I haven’t seen anything about this in the Spanish press as yet. Neither have I read anything about the measures being taken to reduce the heat over Gibraltar, such as the lifting of the ban on cruise ships visiting Spanish ports if they have stopped over at The Rock. Not many votes in silent diplomacy, I suppose.
The Spanish President has announced that Tony Blair has personally assured him that negotiations on the handover of Gibraltar will restart within the next few months. Obviously, Mr Zapatero is unfamiliar with the names and disappointments of Roy Jenkins, Paddy Ashdown and Britain in Europe, to name but a few.
Having read my blogs on this subject, the Spanish government has decided to drastically revise its strategy towards Gibraltar. After spending its first few months in power on a soap box, making belligerent but totally unproductive statements about British provocation, it has now switched to a policy of shelving the issue of sovereignty, while soft-soaping the Gibralterians. They’ll start by removing the petty restrictions on their mobility which helped to make them such intransigent opponents of the failed discussions on joint sovereignty of two years ago. Ah, the power of the fifth estate
Common sense over Gibraltar appears to be breaking out all over the place. Today’s El Pais welcomes the new conciliatory approach of the Spanish government, whilst continuing to see a British colony in Europe as an unacceptable anomaly. Naturally, it makes no mention of Spain’s two North African [“non”]colonies. Going one better, a columnist in the Voz de Galicia suggests that this is the first sensible thing done by a Spanish government vis-à-vis Gibraltar in several decades. He, too, has obviously been reading my blog.
Gibraltar has decided to follow the example of Catalunia and seek separate ‘national’ status in the world federation of ‘hockey on skates’, whatever that is. Needless to say, this has sent the Spanish government into a paroxysm of fury as it is already trying to get the Catalunia decision reversed. If this process of separate identification continues - as it surely will - within a hundred years every little hamlet in Europe will be a satrapy of Rome. Sorry, Brussels.
Yesterday saw the successful first meeting of the new tripartite Forum focused on the eternal problem of Gibraltar. Hard as it is to believe, the participants dealt with day-to-day issues such as access to the airport which the Brits illegally built in the buffer zone. And not on ethereal questions as to who’ll have sovereignty and how this will be defined.
Good to see that common sense continues to prevail in the tripartite discussions over Gibraltar, with the colony being given a right of veto over any proposed developments. Despite this being a reflection of reality, the President of the PP [Conservative] party has reacted with apoplexy to what he seems to consider an act of treason. No wonder nil progress was made under the last government, despite the British Foreign Office’s long-standing desperation to get shut of the place.
2005
This week a British nuclear submarine limped into Gibraltar for repairs. If a similar French sub had called into nearby Bordeaux, we would never have heard a thing. But, this being a British colony ‘quite different’ from the bits of Spain in North Africa, all hell has broken loose once again. The Gibralterians are furious because the British government told the Spanish government in advance more than they advised them. The Spanish media is up in arms because they were told nothing by Madrid and now want answers to questions such as “Is it a genuine breakdown?” and “Are we all going to be blown to smithereens?” And the Spanish government is incensed because its commendable softly-softly approach to the eternal problem of Gibraltar has gone awry and it now stands accused of being naïve in the face of more perfidy from Albion. Its less-than-brilliant response has been to refuse to answer questions but to say they now believe the British government might have been lying about the extent of the damage so they are considering asking the Spanish secret service to investigate matters. Quite how this will help matters is anyone’s guess.
The good news is that some Spanish commentators see this for the nonsense it is. But imagine what it would be like if Spain had a real tabloid press.
Good to see that the Gibraltar row has been downgraded to page 13 or so, after the British government gave a written undertaking to have its sub back at sea by Wednesday. Let’s hope we don’t have a nuclear holocaust before then. Meanwhile, the Galician Nationalist Party have demanded that the government insist that British nuclear submarines refrain from sailing anywhere near the north west coast. Doubtless they’ll be asking the same thing of the French, the Russians and the Americans.
Several prominent lawyers and public notaries have been arrested in Marbella, for laundering criminal money on an almost unimaginable scale. Given the saga of the infamous late mayor of the place, Jesus Gil, this development can hardly have come as much of a surprise to anyone. Nonetheless, one Spanish newspaper managed to make it all sound like the fault of Gibraltar for being a fiscal paradise which entices Spaniards into dishonesty.
Gibraltar continues to feature in newspaper articles about corruption on the south coast. A well-known Anglo-Spanish journalist – Tom Burns Marañón – has expressed doubts that the place is as guilty as charged but added the rider that he doesn’t expect to convince any readers, as Spanish political correctness demands that The Rock is seen as a den of thieves. Given the daily headlines of malfeasance on the part of senior businessmen and politicians in Spain itself, this obsession with financial skulduggery in Gibraltar certainly can strike one as rather odd. I would guess that Switzerland is far more deserving of the accusations but this, of course, wouldn’t butter any electoral parsnips in Spain.
Spain is again complaining to Brussels about activities in Gibraltar; this time because people there are allowed to vote in EU elections even though [unlike, of course, people in Ceuta and Melilla] they are mere ‘colonists’. As someone has noted, Spain may well have a good case on this but it would be nice if they could come to court with ‘clean hands’. As it is, they have a long record of completely ignoring Brussels’ rulings about their practice of arbitrarily closing the border and banning cruise ships from Spanish ports. But, of course, in Spain all rules are for other people.
Graduates from the same school of diplomacy as the Prince of Monaco are now ripping up their diplomas with alacrity. Last week he ‘torpedoed Spain’s chances’ of the 2012 Olympics by raising the contentious issue of ETA bombs at the final meeting of the IOC. But, not content with this, he’s now declared his support for Gibraltar’s attempt to get a seat on the committee. Needless to say, this has provoked fury in Spain, where he’s now being portrayed as the biggest congenital idiot in a family of clowns. So imagine what would’ve happened if Spain had a real tabloid press!
A local columnists has bemoaned the demise of bullfighting in Spain, especially in the secessionist regions, where it is seen as too Spanish. The writer points the finger at rich and risk-averse bullfighters who, he says, spend more time in the pages of the gossip magazines than in the ring. But he also blames the British for planting the flag of football in Spanish soil, just as they have planted their flag on the rock of Gibraltar. It’s possible his tongue was firmly in his cheek but it’s still quite an achievement to get the Gibraltar issue into an article on bullfighting.´
Perhaps my friend Fernando in Ferrol can tell me why the streets of nearby Brión will be ‘running with British blood’ this coming weekend. And why people will be racing around dressed as Brits ‘smelling of sulphur, with 2 horns in the front and a tail behind’. I doubt it has anything to do with Gibraltar but you never know.
Aragon is the latest region [or ‘Autonomous Community’] to demand that its ‘historical rights’ be included in a new statute of cohabitation with the Spanish state. At this rate, by the time the Gibraltarians are ready to join Spain, there won’t be much of it left.
I read today the following comment from a British MP about Gibraltar. “For many in this government, jettisoning Gibraltar is an end in itself. If Madrid happens to put something on the table in return, fine. But one feels Labour would still seek to withdraw from the Rock, even if they had to pay Madrid to take it.” Only local resolve and the British tabloids stand in the way, it seems. These, of course, grow in direct response to noises from any Spanish government which courts domestic favour by playing the Gib card.
There’ve been a couple of comments about Spain’s African enclaves and Gibraltar. For what it’s worth, my own view is that history is irrelevant; that there’s no sustainable argument that differentiates between these three places; that all of them should belong to the lands with which they are contiguous; but that, in this day and age, this can’t be done until a majority of the local citizens agree. Likewise Northern Ireland.
There was much talk of solidarity at the Trafalgar commemoration on Thursday. But, as one of the national papers stressed, the Minister of Defence’s speech looked rather more towards future battles – with the Catalans and Basques – than towards those of the past. And I couldn’t help noticing that, despite all the talk of European fraternal friendship, the Spanish government felt obliged to demand that the British ships involved didn’t stop over in Gibraltar after the event. I guess that would have been too much like the real thing.
2006
I see the northern Italian region of Alto Adigio has sought the ‘protection and tutelage’ of Austria. I wonder whether we can shortly expect to see a similar request from Catalunia in the direction of France. Or perhaps Angora. And from Celtic Galicia towards Ireland. Though I guess it’s unlikely Gibraltar will ever seek the protection and tutelage of nearby Morocco, once the British government finally achieves its aim of getting shut of the troublesome place.
Gibraltar, it seems, is back in the news, ahead of the next meeting of the forum established between the British and Spanish governments [who share the objective of Spanish sovereignty] and the prime minister of Gibraltar, who begs to differ. The British are extremely optimistic but the Spanish only ‘moderately’ so. The issues on which progress is expected include use of the airport by Spanish citizens; payment of pensions to Spaniards who have worked on the Rock; and increased availability of phone lines from Spain. You have to ask why two friendly countries who’ve been fellow members of the EU for more than 20 years are still having difficulty reaching agreement around such mundane matters. Perhaps if there’d been less vote-winning posturing from both sides things would now be much further on. Better late than never, I suppose.
I think we know now why the Spanish team were only ‘moderately optimistic’ prior to the tripartite talks over matters Gibraltarian. It seems they’re not disposed to reaching agreement over the 3 issues tabled – airport access, pensions for Spanish citizens and more phone links with Spain – until they know the final form of the new constitution being negotiated between the UK and Gibraltar. In retrospect, one wonder why the meeting went ahead in the first place.
At the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games this morning, I was intrigued to see separate teams from the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Jersey. Food for thought. I wonder if the Basque and Catalan nationalists would support self-determination and nation status for these tiny places. And - closer to home - for Gibraltar, which also had its own team. My guess is Yes and No. But possibly No and No.
After decades of nonsense over Gibraltar, it looks as if common sense has finally broken out between all parties. Agreement has been reached over the joint use of the airport in ‘no-man’s-land’ and now other developments around telecoms and border controls are expected to follow in its wake. It’s only been 20 years since the UK and Spain became co-members of the EU. Imagine if they were enemies.
President Zapatero was this weekend congratulated by the UK Minister for Europe for having the courage to change Spanish policy around Gibraltar. I imagine this accolade was the last thing Mr Z wanted appearing in the media at a time of trench warfare with the opposition party around how to deal with ETA terrorists.
And still on this subject - as you would expect, illegal immigrants use a thousand pretexts to justify entry into Spanish territory. But none as surreal, say the police, as a group of Algerians who landed from a raft in one of the north African enclaves and claimed they were British citizens who’d left their papers in their hotel. In Gibraltar, presumably.
So, Gibraltar is to become a member of UEFA and will play in tournaments such as the European Cup. I don’t think one has to be Spanish to regard this development as quite ridiculous. However, I’m now looking forward to being the ageing coach of the Wirral Peninsula international team in about 15 years time.
It’s reported today that new evidence shows the last Neanderthals lived in Gibraltar 8,000 years ago. This confused me a little as I could swear there were still some there when I last went about 25 years ago. Maybe they were just Brits on holiday.
Well, after decades of stupidity, it’s good to see a common sense solution has finally emerged on the thorny issue of Gibraltar. Praise must surely go to the government of Mr Zapatero for accepting the problem of sovereignty wasn’t going to be resolved against the wishes of the inhabitants and that an interim agreement would be of most benefit to Spain. In particular to those Andalucians who work in or live near the colony.
Even the right-of-centre paper, El Mundo, has praised the Spanish government for its ‘pragmatism’ over Gibraltar. Even more noble – a quality much admired by the Spanish – was a letter in El Pais today which not only expressed admiration for the government but also sympathy with the Gibraltarians for hundreds of years of maltreatment at the hands of Spain, whilst offering a constant refuge for her free thinkers. Now, that really is noble.
Returning to the question of Gibraltar and the common sense/pragmatism of the Spanish government. Am I being too cynical to wonder whether the first flight from Madrid to The Rock’s airport will be full of Senegalese illegals who’ve just landed in the Canary islands? Now, that would be pragmatism!
In English, double negatives are as rare as hens’ teeth. Not so with Spanish, where they are common. Here’s a good example from one of today’s papers:- El Partido Popular pedirá explicaciones al ministro de Exteriores, y si las que éste no ofrece no son suficientes . . Meaning:- The People’s Party is to seek explanations from the Foreign Secretary and if those that the latter doesn’t offer are not sufficient . . . No wonder it took 37 years to get agreement over Gibraltar.
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