Gibraltar?

[Len]

Can 2 Nato nations go to war even? Jesus what a sorry state of affairs. Theresa Mays silence isn't helpful either.

[Lizard]

Interestingly, Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, King Felipe VI of Spain and his missus are all 3 or 4x great grand children of Queen Victoria. (In 3 different ways in Filipe's case).

Nothing like a family squabble, right?

[Sandydragon]

You mean like Greece and Turkey?

This argument is a load of old bollocks quite frankly. Gibraltar was acquired 300 years ago. Yes it was an imperialist land grab, but frankly most of the borders in Europe today have been acquired by military force. If there was a Spanish population desperate for re-unification with mainland Spain then I would suggest that there is a legitimate argument. But the Gibraltarians have voted repeatedly to remain part of the UK. Give them another vote post Brexit and then, if the last results are repeated, the Spanish can do one. Its none of their business.

[WaspInWales]

Spain can bring it. They can bring Portugal too.

[Digby]

I can't really say I care if Gibraltar stays British or not, though my sympathies don't much lie with a bunch of tax dodgers, however for Spain to have a point they'd need to first address Ceuta, Melilla and a few other places to boot

[Zhivago]

Spain are being dicks, but threatening war is serious. Such comments should have been rubbished immediately.

[OptimisticJock]

Nobody has threatened to go to war.

[caldeyrfc]

Nobody has threatened to go to war.

What Howard said yesterday could be interoperated as such

[OptimisticJock]

Nobody has threatened to go to war.

What Howard said yesterday could be interoperated as such

Only if you really really want to be irate about something.

[caldeyrfc]

Nobody has threatened to go to war.

What Howard said yesterday could be interoperated as such

Only if you really really want to be irate about something.

Not really no, I really don't have an opinion about Gib but listened to Howard invoking Thatcher and The Falkland Islands and thought, "that's a bit off" he really should have kept his mouth shut

[Mellsblue]

What Howard said yesterday could be interoperated as such

Only if you really really want to be irate about something.

Not really no, I really don't have an opinion about Gib but listened to Howard invoking Thatcher and The Falkland Islands and thought, "that's a bit off" he really should have kept his mouth shut

Howard is a moron. The guy is stuck in the 80's.

[OptimisticJock]

What Howard said yesterday could be interoperated as such

Only if you really really want to be irate about something.

Not really no, I really don't have an opinion about Gib but listened to Howard invoking Thatcher and The Falkland Islands and thought, "that's a bit off" he really should have kept his mouth shut

There's a huge difference between "a bit off" and threatening war, so aye, it's only being interpreted as the latter by those that are wanting to be upset about something.

[BBD]

Only if you really really want to be irate about something.

Not really no, I really don't have an opinion about Gib but listened to Howard invoking Thatcher and The Falkland Islands and thought, "that's a bit off" he really should have kept his mouth shut

Howard is a moron. The guy is stuck in the 80's.

yeah, he keeps going round, round like a record baby right round round round

[OptimisticJock]

Not really no, I really don't have an opinion about Gib but listened to Howard invoking Thatcher and The Falkland Islands and thought, "that's a bit off" he really should have kept his mouth shut

Howard is a moron. The guy is stuck in the 80's.

yeah, he keeps going round, round like a record baby right round round round

You should be so lucky.

[Zhivago]

Nobody has threatened to go to war.

It is an implicit threat.

“Thirty-five years ago this week, another woman prime minister sent a taskforce halfway across the world to defend the freedom of another small group of British people against another Spanish-speaking country, and I’m absolutely certain that our current prime minister will show the same resolve in standing by the people of Gibraltar,”

[OptimisticJock]

Nobody has threatened to go to war.

It is an implicit threat.

“Thirty-five years ago this week, another woman prime minister sent a taskforce halfway across the world to defend the freedom of another small group of British people against another Spanish-speaking country, and I’m absolutely certain that our current prime minister will show the same resolve in standing by the people of Gibraltar,”

No its not.

[J Dory]

Spain can bring it. They can bring Portugal too.

They can bring the European Union.

Brexit is gonna be great watching.

[caldeyrfc]

Seems that it might have been a well planned comment
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -fantasies

[zer0]

They can bring the European Union.

Germany does have an undefeated record in Spain...

[J Dory]

Does the EU come with defense of the Union commitments? Imagine some populist cnut gets into power in Britain and decides to go to war over Gibraltar. Pre-Trump and Brexit I would have said impossible, at some point in the evening of the US election I realized anything is possible.

[Lizard]

What would cause a war? My understanding is simply that Spain in particular will get a say over whether any deal between the EU and UK will apply to Gibraltar. Gibraltar is already outside some aspects of the EU (customs union and VAT area) so treating it differently from the rest of the UK is not exactly radical.

Spain has not threatened Gibraltar's territorial integrity or the UK's sovereignty.

If Spain does reject Gibraltar's involvement in a deal then it's hard to see how sending a task force to the Rock, or a gunboat, will really help given that there will be no invaders to repel.

[J Dory]

What would cause a war?.

Some idiots in charge. Face Trump off with some other narcissistic egomaniac in charge of an arsenal. Who knows what could happen?

[Lizard]

Well, whatever you lot do over there please try to keep us out of it this time, okay?

I'm pretty sure we don't have any alliances that would require us to interfere on either side. If things got truely out of hand and Spain or her allies attacked Malaysia or Singapore we would need to consult with the UK and Aussie but there's no obligation to do anything else.

[Sandydragon]

Nobody has threatened to go to war.

It is an implicit threat.

“Thirty-five years ago this week, another woman prime minister sent a taskforce halfway across the world to defend the freedom of another small group of British people against another Spanish-speaking country, and I’m absolutely certain that our current prime minister will show the same resolve in standing by the people of Gibraltar,”

If I wished to be pedantic, I could point out that in that instance, war was started by the Argentines invading the Falklands, so war won't happen unless Spain invaded Gibraltar. Which isn't going to happen no matter how heated the debate gets.

Howard is an idiot and should be ignored.

This is a bit of diplomatic hand bagging just to set the tone and I kind of agree with the Gibraltarian minister who was quite happy that at least the issue was out in the open now, this was going to raise its head at some point.

[Sandydragon]

Does the EU come with defense of the Union commitments? Imagine some populist cnut gets into power in Britain and decides to go to war over Gibraltar. Pre-Trump and Brexit I would have said impossible, at some point in the evening of the US election I realized anything is possible.

NATO does. This won't end in a war. It's posturing, a bit clumsy but Howard isn't near power and everyone is entitled to their opinion. Sadly some clowns say it too loudly.