Gibraltar in the news

In my home town of Pontefract the Butter Cross in the Market Place was erected in 1734 by Solomon Dupier. He is said to have been a member of the Spanish garrison of Gibraltar in 1704 when the Rock was beseiged by Sir George Rooke and the man who indicated to the beseigers that a good time to attack was when the garrison were at church. This proved successful, and Gibraltar became a British possession - and Dupier a government pensioner who ended up in Pontefract. He appears to have travelled there with a Captain Lay who was, perhaps, his contact. He was evidently prosperous, and able to be a  benefactor, as the Butter Cross and his memorial in the nearby church at Darrington testify. As a result the history of Gibraltar has an added interest for me.

The Rock of Gibraltar

Image: BookNerja 

The latest Brexit-induced spat about the status of Gibraltar is a sad indicator of the bad tempered proceedings that I fear Brexit will prove to be. British and Spanish membership of the EU helped put the issue on ice between two allied countries, and permanently opened the frontier but with Brexit negotiations looming that is all up for discussion, animosity and grabs.

Giving the Gibraltarians a right of veto on union with Spain allows the local people to be secure in their Britishness, but also to play the UK and Spain off against one another over such issues as territorial waters and cigarette smuggling. Kicking the issue into the diplomatic equivalent of touch looked the best way out of the impasse.

However the latest verbal exchanges and expressions of solidarity with the Rock from British politicias, not to mention Lord Howard conjuring up the spirit of the Falklands War ( has he gone gaga?) and all implicit with more typical jibes at Johnny (Juanito ) Foreigner are all very depressing and unnecessary.

Which leads me to ask the rhetorical question - would we have had a referendum in 1940 when the then UK government thought of offering Gibraltar to the Caudillo to keep Spain out of WWII, not to mention the idea of bribing Italy with Malta? I 'll bet anyone more than a few euros or indeed pesetas that we would not...

The flag of Gibraltar

It was regularised in 1982 and derives from the coat of arms granted by Queen Isabella I on 10 July 1502

Image: Wikipedia

Brexit and Lord Heseltine

As I have indicated before about Brexit I remain a Remainer.

I have never been keen on EU per se, with its obsession with over-regulation but I do accept its underlying concept of a shared culture and civilisation, and, as a consequence, the economy that make sit tick over.

Too many in the United Kingdom never understood the basic idea of binding countries together by a variety of means in the wake of the two World Wars.

Brexit is, I fear, a leap into the unknown and into uncertainty - and not least over the future of the United Kingdom in respect of Scotland and Northern Ireland

However the situation is not helped by ardent pro-Europeans like Lord Heseltine whose latest interview suggests, as a spokesman from UKIP does, that he is losig the plot. If you have not seen it then read this post from the BBC News website:Brexit 'clears way' for German domination claims Heseltine
Ironically Heseltine ends up sounding more like a Europhobe, and betrays an astonishing lack of historical understanding or simple good manners towards people we shall have to negotiate with.

What a mess!

What Newman might have said about Brexit...

As the Brexit juggernaut rumbles up into half throttle I am led to think, as someone who voted Remain - and who nevertheless has precious little love for the way the EU runs itself - and as the whole organism shows increasing signs of political and institutional failure, that staying in and seeking to reform it or waiting for it to disintegrate and then reconstructing it on more sensible lines would have been a better choice for the British people.*

Which long sentence leads me to paraphrase Bl. John Henry Newman and observe that ten thousand difficulties do not amount to a single doubt in my mind but that we should be IN Europe, not OUT.

* A German friend once observed of a piece I was writing "You write very long sentences John." Coming from someone whose native language delights in compound words I took it as quite a compliment.

Brexit before Brexit?

I came across this poster on Pinterest the other day and it somehow seemed rather topical as to attitudes in the context of the post-Brexit vote discussions...

Image:Pinterest