RugbyRebels

I assumed we were talking about Michael Howard, but I've not read a paper for a couple of days, and hadn't heard it discussed on Radio 4 so just to check googled Michael Howard + Gibraltar, and it is indeed the man with something about the night about him. What made me laugh though was one of the article descriptions

Independent - Gibraltar dispute: Michael Howard's claim UK could go to war with ...

Standard - Former Tory leader Michael Howard suggests Theresa May 'would go ...

Guardian - Theresa May would go to war to protect Gibraltar, Michael Howard says

and the paper itself nicely illustrating what they think of their own readers

Sun - Where is Gibraltar, what did Michael Howard say about war with Spain ...

Zhivago wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote: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,”

in that case, the EU will only discuss a future trade deal when sufficient progress has been made in agreeing the exit terms i.e. the exit bill, is an implicit threat too

neither are a threat, implicit or explicit, they are both a couple of opening moves in a giant chess game, the aim of which will be to take two years to shuffle the look of the current arrangement but to effectively leave both sides operating largely as before, similar amounts of money will be flowing into the same pockets

BBD wrote:

Zhivago wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote: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,”

in that case, the EU will only discuss a future trade deal when sufficient progress has been made in agreeing the exit terms i.e. the exit bill, is an implicit threat too

neither are a threat, implicit or explicit, they are both a couple of opening moves in a giant chess game, the aim of which will be to take two years to shuffle the look of the current arrangement but to effectively leave both sides operating largely as before, similar amounts of money will be flowing into the same pockets

Brilliant. Someone needs to make a Brexit chess game. The rook will obviously become the rock, the knight will become security cooperation...that's my imagination finished. Suggestions for the rest and I'll get crowd sourcing for start up costs.

Mellsblue wrote:

BBD wrote:

Zhivago wrote:
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,”

in that case, the EU will only discuss a future trade deal when sufficient progress has been made in agreeing the exit terms i.e. the exit bill, is an implicit threat too

neither are a threat, implicit or explicit, they are both a couple of opening moves in a giant chess game, the aim of which will be to take two years to shuffle the look of the current arrangement but to effectively leave both sides operating largely as before, similar amounts of money will be flowing into the same pockets

Brilliant. Someone needs to make a Brexit chess game. The rook will obviously become the rock, the knight will become security cooperation...that's my imagination finished. Suggestions for the rest and I'll get crowd sourcing for start up costs.

May as the knight, or more specifically, the nag/mare.

Fishing rights covered by the rows of prawns. (nod to bottom)

Mellsblue wrote:

BBD wrote:

Zhivago wrote:
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,”

in that case, the EU will only discuss a future trade deal when sufficient progress has been made in agreeing the exit terms i.e. the exit bill, is an implicit threat too

neither are a threat, implicit or explicit, they are both a couple of opening moves in a giant chess game, the aim of which will be to take two years to shuffle the look of the current arrangement but to effectively leave both sides operating largely as before, similar amounts of money will be flowing into the same pockets

Brilliant. Someone needs to make a Brexit chess game. The rook will obviously become the rock, the knight will become security cooperation...that's my imagination finished. Suggestions for the rest and I'll get crowd sourcing for start up costs.

The bishop would the one to be bashed should anything go wrong

BBD wrote:

Zhivago wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote: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,”

in that case, the EU will only discuss a future trade deal when sufficient progress has been made in agreeing the exit terms i.e. the exit bill, is an implicit threat too

neither are a threat, implicit or explicit, they are both a couple of opening moves in a giant chess game, the aim of which will be to take two years to shuffle the look of the current arrangement but to effectively leave both sides operating largely as before, similar amounts of money will be flowing into the same pockets

Chess is all about making threats...

Mellsblue wrote:

BBD wrote:

Zhivago wrote:
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,”

in that case, the EU will only discuss a future trade deal when sufficient progress has been made in agreeing the exit terms i.e. the exit bill, is an implicit threat too

neither are a threat, implicit or explicit, they are both a couple of opening moves in a giant chess game, the aim of which will be to take two years to shuffle the look of the current arrangement but to effectively leave both sides operating largely as before, similar amounts of money will be flowing into the same pockets

Brilliant. Someone needs to make a Brexit chess game. The rook will obviously become the rock, the knight will become security cooperation...that's my imagination finished. Suggestions for the rest and I'll get crowd sourcing for start up costs.

Better yet a board game in the mould of Twilight Struggle. Someone should pass the idea onto GMT games.

MP Col Bob Stewart "am act of war"
The Daily Heil and The Slum both having pictures of a plucky Brit ship standing up to a nasty Spanish bully
And we're not being primed for war? FFS

Correct, we're not being primed for war. Simply even once Brexit is complete we'll still have lot of stories blaming foreign types for many of our (perceived) woes, and we're not going to stop with the odd piece of jingoistic nonsense whilst we wait for Brexit to complete

caldeyrfc wrote:MP Col Bob Stewart "am act of war"
The Daily Heil and The Slum both having pictures of a plucky Brit ship standing up to a nasty Spanish bully
And we're not being primed for war? FFS

Most of that is aimed at the FCO and our politicians so they understand that the Great British public won't give up on Gibraltar so dont bargain away too much. No one is seriously expecting Spain to invade.

Fucking hell, we* spend half our lives decrying the main stream media for publishing hysterical bullshit, and the other half getting hysterical at the bullshit they publish. Wise the fuck up.



*I don't, by we I mean you people.**

**some of you people

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Nobody has mentioned the children. Why is nobody thinking of the children????!!!!!

caldeyrfc wrote:MP Col Bob Stewart "am act of war"
The Daily Heil and The Slum both having pictures of a plucky Brit ship standing up to a nasty Spanish bully
And we're not being primed for war? FFS

no. No we're not. Chill the fuck out.

OptimisticJock wrote:Nobody has mentioned the children. Why is nobody thinking of the children????!!!!!

The Spaniards will invade with an armada of children? The crafty blighters.

Digby wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote:Nobody has mentioned the children. Why is nobody thinking of the children????!!!!!

The Spaniards will invade with an armada of children? The crafty blighters.

Infantile

Banquo wrote:

Digby wrote:

OptimisticJock wrote:Nobody has mentioned the children. Why is nobody thinking of the children????!!!!!

The Spaniards will invade with an armada of children? The crafty blighters.

Infantile

Starting to feel like an inquisition

Digby wrote:

Banquo wrote:

Digby wrote:
The Spaniards will invade with an armada of children? The crafty blighters.

Infantile

Starting to feel like an inquisition

Nobody expected that

Of course we are being primed for war, it's what UK PM's do. Who was the last UK PM not to send our Forces into conflict? Jim Callaghan? It's what we do

I can't see any chance we'd be willing to go to war over Gibraltar, and I can see still less chance we'd be willing to go to war with Spain

Before that you've got to factor in the chances of Spain invading. Which I'd imagine is zero.

I wonder what % of the populace would object to a war with Spain? a decent number turned out to protest armed forces going into Iraq, and whilst a fair number of those are people that most others routinely ignore there were so many there must have been some normal people in there too.

I'd assume in advance that any PM declaring war on Spain would see that government fall inside 24 hours, maybe inside 2-4 hours

There was a YouGov poll on it earlier in the week based on the scenario of a Spanish invasion. From memory, and I only glanced at it before the results were final, the result was 57 v 43 against.

Mellsblue wrote:There was a YouGov poll on it earlier in the week based on the scenario of a Spanish invasion. From memory, and I only glanced at it before the results were final, the result was 57 v 43 against.

The did a poll based on a Spanish invasion?

I'd expect them to poll on maybe keeping Gibraltar as British Vs trading off some aspects of control, and trading off some aspects of control within the context of getting a Brexit deal sorted. I'm surprised if they're doing polls on going to war with one of our nearest and biggest allies.

Mellsblue wrote:Before that you've got to factor in the chances of Spain invading. Which I'd imagine is zero.

Exactly. The talk from a former Tory leader was that if the Spanish invaded Gibraltar, we would fight back. That was the direct comparison. A less aggressive comparison would be standing up to aggression from another country. However, both require Spain to be the aggressor. Lets all calm down. A lot.