I suggested that it was time to say goodbye to Gibraltar on this blog last year. I was explicitly discussing the future of the British Overseas Territory in the context of Brexit. And as I said at the time:
Gibraltar is an outpost of an era that still exists only in the minds of the likes of William Hague. It's a remnant of Empire and colonialism that has no place in a modern Europe, in which the UK apparently wants no part. And it is funded by its activity as a tax haven and centre for offshore gambling. The first activity is intent on undermining the global economy and the legitimate tax revenues of democratically elected governments. The other is wedded to destroying individual lives. Quite emphatically, this is a place that is dedicated undermining well-being.
That upset some Gibraltarians: I responded to their comments, and dismissed them all, here.
It was not the first time I'de discussed the issue on the blog though. I had done so several times before. For example, in 2013 I noted that time what Simon Jenkins had written of Gibraltar in the Guaridan, where he had said:
Such colonies claim to be “more British than the British”, except that they pay no UK tax and act as tax havens for funds from Britain. Gibraltar has made a particular specialism of internet gambling. Colonies claim allegiance to the crown, but not to its exchequer, or its financial police. They are Churchillian theme parks of red pillar boxes, fish and chips and warm beer. But they want the smooth without the rough. When the neighbours cut up nasty, they demand that those whose taxes protect them should send soldiers, diplomats and lawyers to their aid.
I entirely agree with him, as I also do with this comment he made:
Any study of Britain's currently contentious colonies, [such as] Gibraltar, can reach only two conclusions. One is that Britain's claim to them in international law is wholly sound, the other is that it is nowadays wholly daft.
Twenty-first century nation states will no longer tolerate even the mild humiliation of hosting the detritus of 18th- and 19th-century empires. Most European empires were born of the realpolitik of power, [such as] the treaty of Utrecht (1713). The same realpolitik now ordains their dismantling.
Precisely. As the UK unfurls, with a great many people now thinking it likely that Scotland and maybe Nor there Ireland will leave, with timing being the only point in question, we suffer the absurd situation of a former leader of the Conservative Party suggesting that we would go to war with Spain over Brexit negotiations to defend the right of Gibraltarians to self determination.
But let's be clear, any such vote is rigged from the outset. Gibraltar is not willing to contribute to the UK: indeed, it devotes a great deal of effort to undermining it. And no Gibraltarian wants to pay UK taxes. But at the same time they demand we defend them. So what they are actually demanding is the right to free-ride off the back of the UK taxpayer at cost to Europe at large by running a hub for anti-social (at best) commercial activity. Of course they'll vote yes for that forever. That's like holding a referendum to ask if everyone in the UK wants a months free holiday in the Caribbean each year and being surprised that 98% of people said yes.
So let's face facts. First, Gibraltar has no remaining defence role of any consequence to the UK. We don't even keep a plane there.
Second, Gibraltar is a dedicated tax haven.
Third, leaving the UK's support would make no difference to Gibraltar's port services or tourism: they're functions of geography. The people of the place will not need to suffer as a result of joining Spain.
Fourth, in austerity Britian let's be clear that the only referendum the people of Gibraltar should be offered is one that asks if they want to join the UK, pay all its taxes, comply with all its regulations including on gambling, tax and company and trust law, and in return be provided only those services that leave it with a balanced budget after allowing for the full cost of defending it against Spain, running its borders, maintaining its new hard borders and all related costs. If this could not be done within UK tax limits then additional taxes would be payable, and that must be explicit before the referendum is suggested. Run a referndum on that basis and see what happens. I think some minds with might be changed. But right now Gibraltar is living in a fantasy world without apparent responsibilities or financial constraints that all the rest of us would love but will never enjoy and Tory politicians are pandering to that absurdity. Those politicians should be ashamed of themselves. The rest of us should point out their stupidity.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Well said Richard. I find when I am in Spain that Gibraltar is an embarrassment. It will be interesting to see where this goes though. We the Tories simply leave them in the lurch or use it to further drag us into the mire in the negotiations. Either is possible, I feel, but not a sensible conclusion.
Sorry Richard, said we when I meant will. Also ironic that today is the 35th anniversary of the Falklands conflict.
45608?
I am pretty sure, without looking it up, that is a Jubilee
I can guess the name….
https://www.flickr.com/photos/70607220@N04/6816937755
BRAVO!
Now don a flak jacket and helmet quickly!
In my bunker!
The key point here isn’t any specific act or statement of reckless stupidity – does any one of them matter more than any other? – it’s this point:
Today, the Brexiteers *noticed* Gibraltar.
Not just ‘made some airy generalisation of optimism and deluded superiority’: today they are confronting an ugly reality.
I can go into the specifics of the Gibraltar issue, and the key detail of it being bucketed into bilateral components of the Brexit process; but other commentators here are better qualified to go into the specifics of this issue.
But my take is the significance of Gibraltar to Brexiteers: this is the first issue where indifference or deluded optimism or their complete refusal to confront reality has moved on to Reality confronting Brexiteers.
Their responses are instructive.
In short: Gibraltar is the first big ‘reality call’ that rang the doorbell loud enough to penetrate the insulating fog of their delusions.
One of the ‘unknown unknowns’ is Europe’s reaction to the lunacy of Brexiteers: and neither the EU, nor we Anglo-Europeans, have any idea how dangerous the Brexiteers can be.
At some point, the Brexiteers will say or do something so dangerous and damaging – or just so offensive – that it and they unite the EU27 in concluding that it’s vital to keep Britain out of Europe at any cost.
It is entirely possible that the trigger for this has already been irrevocably pulled.
Agreed
As we’ve noted previously, Richard, Simon Jenkins’ views on some issue’s are unsupportable but on Gibraltar and tax havens in general he’s bang on the money and, like you, is not scared to say so despite knowing every loony colonialist, Tory and UKIPer/Brexiteer will be calling him (and you) a ‘traitor’ or worse, for doing so. But these entities are free-riders of the worst order, as you say, and have got away with it for decades on the strength of their historical – and now long passed – stategic value. If England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have to find a new position and role in a post-Brexit world then so too should Gibraltar and every other remnant of our colonial past.
Jenkins can be deeply irritating
He is right on this
The Tory position on this is staggering
A ‘free’ market capabilist economy requires governence, it’s not the natural tendency of business if allowed to operate unfettered .. you end up with monopolies and cartels (that seem feudalistic) – libertarian territory. In order for the free market economy to work you need ‘competition law’ which includes a public interest test. This is something we the British devised and then passed over to dg4 in the European Commission. For a market to be dynamic you need to support entrepreneurs and SMEs, whilst mainting a competitive market environment. There is no contradiction for government also to play a role sometimes in the market where deficiencies and inefficiencies occur. Gibraltar is the antithesis to all of this.
Richard, you’re always interesting, usually correct and occasionally so “on the money” that I feel the need to comment. This is one of those occasions. Thank you.
Michael Howard was the leader of the Tories and aspired to be PM. Ian Duncan Smith was a leader of the Tories and aspired to be PM. The Brexit fiasco is demonstrating not only that these two are both totally bonkers, but also that the Tory Party is inclined to elect leaders that are totally bonkers. Now I do not say that the current leader of the Tory party is totally bonkers, but she has appointed Liam Fox and Boris Johnson as two ministers intimately involved in the Brexit negotiations, and they are totally bonkers, which surely comes close to suggesting that she is bonkers. It will be interesting to see how she handles this outburst by Michael Howard (does he qualify as one of the “big beasts” of the Tory Party. He has seemingly assured the nation that Mrs May will send a gunboat – or more precisely one of the two new spanking great aircraft carriers (sans aircraft, sans sufficient escort vessels, not yet in service and not in service until 2020 at the earliest)and engage a NATO country in war. She surely will know that when Howard promises that she will do a Maggie Falklands War style, what he is promising she will do is utterly and laughably impossible, and that it can only damage her negotiating chances with the EU. But can she distance herself from this lunatic poutburst that echoes Rees-Mogg’s belting out the St Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V in Parliament? Can she afford to not placate the Brexit headbangers and Dacre and the Telegraph?
Extraordinary to have Michael Howard, someone who competed to be Prime Minister, effectively suggesting that war with Spain is an option.
Even more extraordinary, given that Spain is not only a functioning democracy, but is also a NATO member, so that the other NATO member would be bound by Treaty to come to Spain’s assistance against ANOTHER member of NATO!! Putin might be in danger of dying of laughter!
If it wasn’t so bizarre it might be funny
But I suspect he meant it
I was on a country walk yesterday (the beauty of the English countryside on a sunny spring day being both a necessary antidote to, and the exact opposite of, the ugliness of our politics), and I was discussing the lunacy of the Brexiteers with various people.
We discussed the Gibralter issue, and I suggested that it wouldn’t be long before one of the loonies said the UK should declare war on Spain. I was half joking, but…..lo and behold, within a few hours one of them does just that.
And surprise, surprise, it’s the creepy,sinister, ‘something of the night’ Howard who has come crawling out of the woodwork with this insane drivel.
As others have pointed out, the Brexiteers’ bombastic nonsense is already running aground on the rocks of reality. But of course, the lying, delusional idiots will never admit they’re wrong, so their responses will just get more and more absurd and extreme.
So what is May going to do about them? What about those pro EU Tories who also know this is madness? Jesus wept, what a mess.
Still, at least one can derive a certain degree of pleasure from the position of the Gibraltarians. They’ve been free loading for years, as Richard so succinctly points out, but now they’re on the horns of a hopeless dilemma.
96% voted to stay in the EU, and 99% to be part of the UK. So now what do they do?
Join Spain
It’s their only hope….
I’ve often posted my disagreements with you but you are spot on here!
Its a joke. Putting my Physicist hat on I am used to assigning probabilities and accessing risks. p(0) is something that wont happen. p(1) is something that will certainly happen. p(0.5) is 50-50. The reaction of Spain and the EU towards Gibraltar was so close to p(1) that it beggars belief that the Government was so incompetent to realise this. Charitably one could say that they are so totally overloaded that they are completely overwhelmed.
I remember Maggie was very unpopular in 1982 and the Falkland’s war did wonders for her popularity rating. Threatening war with Spain is ludicrous, thought if I am correct and things get very bad in the UK (think Bangladesh) the likelihood might increase.
Regarding Jenkins clearly he is wired differently to me. I find his analyses unreliable; sometimes on target and sometimes not.
Entirely agree re Jenkins
re probabilities: there is p(0) chance of war with Spain
So there’s p(1) chance we will back down
And p(1) chance some Brexiteers will be very unhappy
And another p(1) chance this will happen many times over the next two years
I find it absurd that the government would treat Gibraltar as a potential stumbling block in either Brexit or Trade negotiations. I cannot think of a single benefit Gibraltar provides to the UK either economically or militarily. Its only purpose seems to be as a quaint reminder of a long gone empire. The fact that somebody appears to have pulled the stake out of Howard’s heart for long enough for him to rise up and threaten a Falkland’s style conflict over this also shows the duplicity in Conservative thinking. We must respect the wishes of the inhabitants of Gibraltar to remain British but must not allow any prospect of a vote for self-determination by Scotland. You really couldn’t make this up.
Andy, if you’re a Brexiteer and Britnat, you can make up any old load of rubbish you like as long as it fits in with the ‘Britain uber alles’ worldview they have. Logic, truth, facts and reasoned argument have no place with these fanatics.
You must remember that they still have an essentially colonialist mentality. So, they don’t want to deal with a bunch of bloody foreigners across the Channel who speak other languages, and who we’ve fought against/with in the past, but they do want massively increased trade with our ex-colonies (i.e people we used to rule) in the Commonwealth, even though this, in practical terms, is not going to replace the huge loss of trade we’ll suffer when we leave the EU.
Hence they cling on desperately to relics of the Empire like Gib, even though it’s a free loading tax haven. And since Scotland became part of the UK as the Empire grew, they can’t beat the thought of it going it’s own way. It’s a colony, dammit. Never mind what the Scots themselves might want.
Hard to disagree with any of that
It’s all too sadly true
Why was Howard not wiped out with the rest of the dinosaurs?
There will be no war.
For a start, we have no carriers (yet).
Even when they stagger into service, the aircraft they have picked (F35) is staggeringly useless for almost anything.
Have a read:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/03/gilmore_farewells_trump_government_slamming_the_f35_again/
Without air-support and air-superiority, ground forces will be slaughtered.
The Spanish navy is next door to Gibraltar!
Dream-on Howard.
I read the Daily Mail today and although its editorial on the way misled diesel car owners may shortly be penalised unfairly was a fair point, their bit about comparing the British and Spanish navies in preparation for conflict was definitely not helpful or funny.
The Daily Mail was wrong about Labour being responsible for diesel car growth however – I remember diesel car use being promoted well before New Labour.
What is Spain’s claim to Gibralter? It has been British longer than it was Spanish.
Clearly the inhabitants do NOT wish to be ruled by Spain, and prefer to remain British. They would surely have an option, should they wish to be ruled by neither, to vote for independence.
Shall we start with proximity?
Proximity? Is that an argument?
Yes
I’d be interested to know if you think the proximity argument also applies to the Falkland Islands.
The Spanish certainly don’t think it applies to the Canary Islands or their territory in North Africa.
Are those locations tax havens?
You know the answer to that
Stop making up excuses for abuse
Thanks for the clarification, Richard. I now understand what you meant by “proximity”.
However, I can’t stop making excuses since I haven’t actually started.
This is the familiar argument always trotted out by imperialist-apologists down the ages. Instead of arguing against imperialism which has no moral or legal basis. I shall give you a counter example and you can point out the lucicrosness of my analogy.
Imagine, that as a result of some obviously ridiculous scenario the U.K. Goes to war with the EU-obviously a totally out of left field situation?
As a result of a peace treaty, negotiated on the basis of the power disparity between the respective participants: the Isle of Wight is assigned to a stronger European country, Germany for example.
I hope you see where Imam going with this argument?
Mark,
That’s not at all the same.
1) The people of Gibraltar wish to remain British, or, possibly independent
2) Gibraltar is self-governing
Do note that Gibraltar has been British much longer than it was Spanish.
But Gibraltar is not British
It is an Overseas Territory
That’s really not the same thing at all
Howard’s comments were so preposterous and inane, I almost wonder if it is part of a plan to divert attention from Osborne’s disgraceful benefit cuts which kick in later this week? The ones which will put quarter of a million children into poverty yet aren’t really mentioned by much of the media. Not to mention what they are going to do to hundreds of thousands of the disabled.
Howard’s ‘contribution’ to the debate was so completely idiotic, I simply can’t imagine any honest reason behind them – there simply has to be some sort of diversionary tactic going on!
We’ll have to see if other senior but no longer front-line Tory names come up with similar idiocy during the rest of the week.