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| Gibraltar's Stiff Upper Lip | |
England and Spain have been at loggerheads
over sovereignty of an
unattractive lump of limestone in the Mediterranean called Gibraltar. It was one of those awkward yours-mine-yours-mine regions in the endless
European wars throughout history. Now Britain wants to hand it back, or at least agree to joint sovereignty
with Spain - something firmly and aggressively rejected by the inhabitants of
the island in a recent referendum on the subject. Presumably they would rather
be part of a semi-busted-arsed country than a corrupt semi-busted-arsed
country. But Britain has stated that it will ignore the referendum. This has a certain irony, because in 1981 Britain went to war with
Argentina (a nation of Spanish offspring), after it re-annexed
the South-Atlantic Falkland Islands which have a similar history. At that point, the British said they were quite willing to discuss
sovereignty of the Falklands in the United Nations -
provided the wishes of the population were taken into account. It should come
as no surprise that the Falkland islanders didn't want to be part of Argentina,
which has since regressed gracefully from dictatorship to
bankruptcy. But apart from the absolute hypocrisy of the British, why is this an issue at
all? In the 'new improved' EU environment, why does Gibraltar have to belong to
either country? They could pay their protection money to the EU
military, and just be a
sovereign state within the EU. There are only two reasons why countries enter into territorial disputes:
- So that the rulers can exploit the natural
resources. There may be oil, fish, minerals or peasants to exploit.
- Because it is militarily important -
it is a good staging post for you to invade someone else, or for someone
else to invade you.
War is not an important
issue within the EU - there are no territorial disputes, hence Gibraltar is no
longer of strategic importance to either country. So it can only be exploitation. So who is
exploiting who? Well, the answer in obvious from the preferences of the parties
involved.
- Spain wants Gibraltar to be part of Spain;
- Gibraltar wants Gibraltar be part of England;
- England wants to be rid of Gibraltar.
Clearly the Spaniards intend to pursue their tradition of pillaging foreign
countries and, like most of South America, then turning them into corrupt
bankrupt pseudo-democracies. And the
Gibraltans are desperate to continue the subsidization and
freeloading which they get from England. Fat chance! Keep waving that Union Jack, guys, the Spanish conquistadors
are coming!
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