Spain harassing Gibraltar (again)

As others have said, Spain down the pan at the moment so distract the voters by waving a nationalist flag. Pretty typical the world around (we get it with immigration) and to be honest there is no reasonable response the UK can bring forth.

Up the navy presence? They know for a fact we would never, ever, in a million, bazillion years fire and sink a Spanish fishing vessel. They will just continue to fish whilst we look like complete ******** because we cannot react without overreacting.

Spain clearly knows this an plays on it. In today's works everything is set up to benefit the antagoniser. We could sail into Spanish waters and fish the **** out of them and they could do nothing about it if the antagoniser refuses to back down. Rhetoric gets piled on rhetoric until... What? Drop a nuke over a fishing/border dispute?

Under today's international law sly ***** get what they want (like national law, the scum tend to get away with acting scum and you react you get nailed) just suck it up and when Spain sorts itself out they'll move on.
 
I think economic tactics have got to be the best way to handle this, given the nature of the incidents its hard to see what increased military presence would do to help. Obviously being in the EU limits what we can do but to start with the Foreign office should issue a warning advising against travel to Southern Spain due to the tensions. Then they can start to think of further impacting tourist travel to Spain, not sure what they would be able to do due to the EU but there must be a fair amount
 
Just countries with very little reasons to have any sort of autonomy left.

The nation state is dying, these pointless issues should eventually die with it.
 
Why is there a border crossing there anyway? Both countries are in the EU, wasn't the Maastrict treaty supposed to get rid of them within the EU borders?
 
peterwalkley said:
Why is there a border crossing there anyway? Both countries are in the EU, wasn't the Maastrict treaty supposed to get rid of them within the EU borders?
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Gibraltar isn't in Schengen, therefore just like entering mainland Europe from the UK its treated as an external border.

There are a few other things like the CAP and CFP that they aren't signed up to which is why Spanish fishing boats aren't allowed to just fish in their waters
 
peterwalkley said:
Why is there a border crossing there anyway? Both countries are in the EU, wasn't the Maastrict treaty supposed to get rid of them within the EU borders?
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Because the UK opted out of free movement of people without checks within the EU; so the fact it is an international border and those Customs booths are there is because of the UK's lack of integration and policy stance; nothing to do with Spain as such who are a member of Schengen.
 
It's blatantly hypocritical considering the Spanish bits in Morocco. They're not even very far from Gibraltar.
 
we must send all the frackers there! if they frack hard enough then maybe gibraltor will snap off from the mainland and float its way merrily away from spain
 
Perhaps slightly off topic, but I was planning on visiting Gibraltar when I was last on holiday in the Costa Del Sol (Benalmadena) but was told by the tour bus company that we could be waiting anything from five minutes up to four hours to actually get across the border.

Wasn't going to risk it, so gave it a miss, shame really as I would have liked to go as I have never been before.

Perhaps a naive question, but what is the big deal anyway, no offence, but Gibraltar isn't exactly a huge piece of land compared to mainland Spain and I don't imagine it has access to vast resources that Spain want for themselves, is this purely a political issue?
 
Biohazard said:
Because the UK opted out of free movement of people without checks within the EU; so the fact it is an international border and those Customs booths are there is because of the UK's lack of integration and policy stance; nothing to do with Spain as such who are a member of Schengen.
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It's not because of the UKs stance,its government are responsible for its relationship with the EU - EU directives have to be legislated through the Gibraltar parliament not the UK, It could join Schengen separately if it wanted to.

However, it's also outside of the customs and VAT unions and doesn't want to join, so even if they joined Schengen the Spanish could still harrass people at the border by pretending its a customs issue.
 
Morpheus77 said:
A few days ago the Gibraltar government created an artificial reef. These reefs are often made up of old ships which are stripped of contaminants and sunk intentionally, or of concrete blocks with holes and metal bars. This is an environmental measure which is aimed at giving corals something to grow on, provide refuge to fish, and more importantly prevent drag net fishing which is illegal and harmful to the seabed.

Spain has taken exception at this (even though they have created 50+ of exactly the same type of reef for the same reasons).

Their revenge is to slow down traffic at the border for all cars trying to leave Gibraltar, slowly checking each and every car. Waiting in the border queue can ordinarily take anywhere between 5 minutes to an hour at peak times. Right now, they are over 6 hours long, with cars causing gridlock as the tailback of traffic reaches all main roads in Gibraltar.

All kinds of people are spending these 6 hours in the heat of summer, including children and elderly, diabetic people becoming hypoglycemic, etc.

The irony is that the majority of people in the queue are Spanish. Up to 10,000 Spaniards cross into Gibraltar daily, because they work here. The government is doing this to hurt Gibraltar's tourist industry, but they don't even care about hurting their own people in the process.

The Gibraltar Government and voluntary people are giving water to people waiting in the queue and dealing with emergencies.

I think it's time the UK Government takes some action. Gibraltarians are British Citizens. Gibraltar is UK land.
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Can I just say, before I appear dismissive, that I believe that the way that Gibraltar is treated at times like this is quite a sad reflection on the Spanish government and that it must seem as though the UK doesn't care about Gibraltar...we do though it is tricky to show it.

Having said that Can I offer that, in this little tête-à-tête, long term, The government of Gibraltar should be the 'victor'. We both know the real reason for the reef - it will cause huge problems for the Spanish trawlers fishing in Gibraltarian waters. This has been a long standing issue that has made Gibraltarians distressed - is there no room for the opinion that, well, this petulant little spaz out by the Spanish is all they can do and will, as usual, subside.
 
Lazder said:
Well, lets nuke Spain shall we?

Seems only reasonable way out of this.
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They seem pretty effective at killing themselves already! Spain's populous i'm sorry to say are a bit on the dim/simple minded side. South Americans actually look down on them for this!
 
Latest news is Spanish Police are now asking for documentation car by car, taking their time, and creating a queue on the way back into Gibraltar as well, and that a Gibraltarian has been beaten up and arrested by then 3 metres from the dividing line.

Another local news clip, Interview with the Chief Minister

 
Thanks for your replies and support. Means a lot to Gibraltarians to have other Brits being supportive.

I'm glad the whole thing hit the news big time. Helps to show the Spanish Government for what it is. The pity is Spain is such a nice country, and full of great people, they just have a knack of getting themselves ruled by the worst.
 
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