Associate
- Joined
- 12 Sep 2012
- Posts
- 21
- Location
- Gibraltar
Just wondering, what does the average UK citizen know about Gibraltar?
We are going through a bad patch here politically. Gibraltar is technically a colony of the UK, which Spain claims as its own. The Spanish government is relentless in its strategies to make our lives difficult. Their latest move is to say that we have no territorial waters, and actively allow their fishermen to ignore our fishing laws, even providing them with police escorts.
During the Jubilee celebrations we had a Royal visit, and even that caused diplomatic tension because their mere presence here offended the Spanish government, to the point that their Queen snubbed our Queen at a reception she held for a number of monarchies.
While in the past, the UK has backed Gibraltar 100% in its practically unanimous wish to remain British, little by little, the feeling here is that it is becoming little more than lip service from politicians. The fishermen and the spanish police are in our waters on a daily basis, doing as they please, in full view of the UK military and the local authorities.
Blair and Straw actually tried to reach a deal with Spain to share sovereignty, all behind our backs. Gibraltar rejected it in a referendum as soon as this deal became public and it eventually came to nothing.
The UN's position is that all territories should be decolonised, however what I feel they fail to understand is that after 308 years, if absorbed by Spain we would not be decolonised, we would be re-colonised.
We are British citizens and happily so, even if our accents and bilingualism (in English and Spanish) are not typically British, but hey, mainland UK itself is equally diverse these days. We have our own identity as a people, not Spanish, not English, not Welsh, simply British Citizens from Gibraltar. We do GCSEs , A-levels, and get our degrees at UK Universities. We
Full integration with the UK was explored in the past and defeated for reasons I am not too informed about, but probably revolved around economic reasons. i.e. being just another UK town works if you are geographically close to the many services you can share, but would be economically crippling if you are far away. Back then we relied heavily on the military to sustain us, but slowly the military base has shrunk and we have become economically self sufficient thanks to tourism, a finance centre, being a hub for internet-based businesses like online gaming, private banking, etc.
So, how do you feel about us as UK Citizens? Are we a thorn on the UK's side that gets in the way of better relations with Spain? Are we worth 'keeping'? Should Spain be confronted in stronger terms by the UK Government? No opinion? Didn't even know we existed?
We are going through a bad patch here politically. Gibraltar is technically a colony of the UK, which Spain claims as its own. The Spanish government is relentless in its strategies to make our lives difficult. Their latest move is to say that we have no territorial waters, and actively allow their fishermen to ignore our fishing laws, even providing them with police escorts.
During the Jubilee celebrations we had a Royal visit, and even that caused diplomatic tension because their mere presence here offended the Spanish government, to the point that their Queen snubbed our Queen at a reception she held for a number of monarchies.
While in the past, the UK has backed Gibraltar 100% in its practically unanimous wish to remain British, little by little, the feeling here is that it is becoming little more than lip service from politicians. The fishermen and the spanish police are in our waters on a daily basis, doing as they please, in full view of the UK military and the local authorities.
Blair and Straw actually tried to reach a deal with Spain to share sovereignty, all behind our backs. Gibraltar rejected it in a referendum as soon as this deal became public and it eventually came to nothing.
The UN's position is that all territories should be decolonised, however what I feel they fail to understand is that after 308 years, if absorbed by Spain we would not be decolonised, we would be re-colonised.
We are British citizens and happily so, even if our accents and bilingualism (in English and Spanish) are not typically British, but hey, mainland UK itself is equally diverse these days. We have our own identity as a people, not Spanish, not English, not Welsh, simply British Citizens from Gibraltar. We do GCSEs , A-levels, and get our degrees at UK Universities. We
Full integration with the UK was explored in the past and defeated for reasons I am not too informed about, but probably revolved around economic reasons. i.e. being just another UK town works if you are geographically close to the many services you can share, but would be economically crippling if you are far away. Back then we relied heavily on the military to sustain us, but slowly the military base has shrunk and we have become economically self sufficient thanks to tourism, a finance centre, being a hub for internet-based businesses like online gaming, private banking, etc.
So, how do you feel about us as UK Citizens? Are we a thorn on the UK's side that gets in the way of better relations with Spain? Are we worth 'keeping'? Should Spain be confronted in stronger terms by the UK Government? No opinion? Didn't even know we existed?
