Why tanto jaleo about el Chief Justiciero?

Caramba con el Bar Council, que pesao estan con eso del Chief Justiciero.

You are telling me. El Bar Chief salio en el televisho and kept refusing to answer questions, lo cual made my husband ask: Y para que fue?

Don't ask me, I don't know. Todo este asunto puede ser una locura de verano, my dear. 

If you ask me, a cualquiera se le olvida el MOT, after all we are all human, y no pasa tanto jaleo. After all, in some European countries el MOT se saca every two years, unlike ourselves donde queremos dar un image of being whiter than white y tenemos que llevar el movi every year.

And the question is: is the rest of Europe less safe than our Gibraltar?

Bueno hija, let's change the page to something more important, or haven't you heard of anything else since I last spoke to you?

Si tu supieras, me he enterao de muchas cosas mantecosas, pero I cannot tell you on the telephone, porque in our Gibraltar cualquiera escucha lo que no debe.

Vamos que viene Mickey Mouse and he becomes an expert. Con tanto chismorreo, you bet!

The Latest fandanguillo is about el Rock Hotel, donde quieren hacer un Varyl Begg de lujo.

Ah Cortes le preocupa el corridor por donde pasan los pajares, y los envirortmentalists andan soltando lo que pueden.

Meanwhile, en Acerinox siguen las toneladas de radioactive waste, for three years now. It puts Tireiess in the shade.

En el shade estamos todos con tanto levante. All we need now is for someone to suggest que le cortemos el pico al peñon to get rid of the levanter.

If we carry on cargandonos al Peñon, the Spaniards might think the Rock they were claiming has gone away, and drop the claim and there is nothing to claim anymore.

Anyway, mi alma, if you go to Spain ten cuidadito por esto de las bombas.

Como que lo ha dicho el Foreign Office. 

Bye.

The Armando Lagrande Column

Al fresco at the Spanish frontier...

Oh dear, fancy knocking down those frontier structures in the middle of August! Will, that is what the Spaniards have done, undertaking frontier works at the worst possible time, when traffic is at its busiest.

It is clear that having joined Europe does not affect their typical Spanish ways.

Not only that. But instead of removing the old and replacing it with the new in one operation, we now have open air, al fresco, frontier controls.

I could not believe it could you? - there having put up those tents sold at supermarkets etc, where their customs and their police are now expected to take cover from the elements.

Let us hope that a strong easterly does not set in, as those parapets will be gone with the wind.

Nothing is normal at the Spanish frontier. Its now back to normal abnormality, if you ask me, with queues stretching in every direction at the weekend.

Article writer

So, someone called Peter Montegriffo has written an article. What's ah the fuss?

A-levels: Easier done than said...

Okay, let me congratulate all those who have passed before they think I do not appreciate what's good.

And I am happy to that we have done marginally better than the Mother Country…how about that!

But we here and them there are over-excited about those great results, and them there say it is one record after another for a number of years now.

Are teachers superior beings? Are students the pupil in your eye?

The argument being heard over there, because we will not talk about the argument over here, is that either the human race has raced to supremacy or exams have become easier or the marking of exams is now more lenient than before.

What do you think, if you think?

Measuring success

The Calpe conference has been another success, we are told. Presumably because people carne, talked and left. Is that how you measure success?

What you see...

The way Gibraltar is going. What you see you keep tidy and clean. What you don't see you let it become even more of a slum area. Double standards?

Not No.1 behaviour

Before someone says it before me, it is wrong that the chief minister should use the official car of Gibraltar to take him to and from Sotogrande when he goes there on holiday. And that's that.

GBC's state of chaos - new GBC board admits

The New Board of GBC have announced nothing new: Only an admission of what we ah already knew, that GBC is a financial liability destined to remain so, unless appropriate remedial action is taken.

In fact, GBC operate as if Gibraltar owes it a living, requiring a handout of over £1 million EVERY YEAR to pay its debts and avoid going bust...

It could be argued that what Charles Serruya, the GBC chairman, has done is identify the problem, which we already knew, but has not offered solutions to stop the dram on public finances.

It would be different if GBC were operating normally and it suddenly had a problem which needed to be salvaged in the general interest to keep it going; or if GBC were agreeable to repay back what Gibraltar gives it in never-ending handouts, or if its financial requirements were deemed to be manageable and possibly justified by some stretch of the imagination.

COLOSSAL MONEY-LOSING MACHINE

But what Serruya is faced with is a colossal money-losing machine, totalling millions and millions.

The much-trumpeted relaunch in 1999 was to salvage GBC. But, as seasoned observers did not fail to point out at the time, it was going to be just another failure, hike the string of failures that has characterised GBC throughout its existence.

The programme hours promised at the relaunch were soon cut by about half, but the level of financial spending continued scandalously.

Says the new board: "It was assessed that the increased costs would be met mainly by increased commercial revenue. However, by the time the new board was appointed it was clear that the commercial targets were not being met."

GBC SPENDS WHAT IT DOES NOT HAVE…

Yet, GBC carried on spending what it did not have. Significant shortfalls had been generated, as Serruya points out.

What Serruya is telling us is that they inherited a bad deal. It would appear that he has attempted to tackle the problem face on, which is laudable.

His statement says: "The level of advertising and commercial revenue budgeted at the time of the relaunch has not been achieved. It is unlikely that we will be able to achieve that level of commercial income in the short to medium term given local market constraints".

But those constraints, if they exist, were there before GBC announced their much-vaunted relaunch. The question that has to be asked is if the Government, and indeed the public, was being taken for a ride.

In what can only be described as a chaotic situation, the new board found that GBC was not even meeting its statutory obligations, with a backlog in the preparation of accounts of what is a public body that should set an example.

Even if financial structures have been improved, "the fundamental financial problem remains".

Thus, GBC cannot carry on operating as if that was not the case.

INCREASED TV LICENCES WOULD ADD INSULT TO INJURY

To suggest, as the new board has indicated, that TV licences should be increased is to add insult to injury. In direct Government subventions and TV licence fees, GBC costs each licence holder in excess of £200 a year, for a service that is not growing but diminishing.

To suggest that GBC is "not commercially viable and need to be funded primarily by a combination of realistic licence fees and Government subventions," is to admit that it is a failure of the first degree and should not be allowed to continue to be a dram on public funds.

Insiders and those who have worked at GBC say that it operates like a Government department and not as a broadcasting operation should.

"THE GOVERNMENT WILL COUGH UP ANOTHER MILLION"

The culture that has developed is that it does not matter whether you produce more or less because, at the end of the year, the Government will cough up another million.

The newsroom is an example that stands out like a sore thumb. They now have more staff than before, but the news has not improved in any appreciable way. Indeed, with less cost they used to produce better news bulletins in the past. So, what is wrong? And how can it carry on being wrong?

Said an insider: "And how can we keep on asking for more money in such circumstances which should shame us ah?"

Solutions for GBC

The trouble with having a GBC board in that it identifies with GBC, becomes part of it and is not an external, independent body tasked with protecting the public Interest only. Thus, if you criticise GBC, the board considers itself criticised. This can be avoided by replacing GBC by a Gibraltar Broadcasting Authority, as PANORAMA has suggested in the past.

The board has now presented a bleak picture for GBC's future. Its chairman, accountant Charles Serruya, must now act in accordance with its findings - and come up with solutions. As a responsible newspaper, we highlight some suggestions to try and be as helpful as possible:

SOLUTION ONE: It has been mooted iii the post that GBC should be closed down and re-started from scratch, with new structures set iii place to operate more under a commercial environment and principles.

SOLUTION TWO: As previously suggested by PANORAMA itself, the main elements of programming -news and current affairs, entertainment and sport -should be put out to tender, with the necessary safeguards in place, particularly as regards news impartiality, on a franchise basis. Successful franchisees who did not adhere to their agreements could have. Their contracts rescinded. A Gibraltar Broadcasting Authority would regulate and ensure agreements were upheld, but would not be involved in production.

SOLUTION THREE: The present GBC set-up should be scaled down to take account of what GBC can afford, and NOT operate as they do now outside their Financial limits. Voluntary redundancies might be offered, and to avoid the unpleasantness of forced redundancies, the scaling down would see vacant posts not refilled, unlike at present where GBC keep employing staff even if they know they cannot afford them from their own resources. GBC would become a smaller, affordable operation that would grow only lf its finances allowed it.

Secret Papers on Gibraltar

by JOE GARCIA

Madrid Ambassador Wanted Britain to “Read the Riot Act” to Gibraltar Ministers

Confidential British Government documents reveal that a UK ambassador in Spain wanted sovereignty to be discussed, and Gibraltar ministers read “the Riot Act”.

Sir John Russell, the ambassador in Madrid, was taking much a pro-Spanish line that eyebrows were being raised in the Foreign Office in London.

Having seen a letter from Russell sent to the Foreign Office, Reggie Seconde of the Southern European Department told his colleagues: “That it should now be recommended to us that it would be natural for us to embark upon discussions of sovereignty for the lifting of restrictions seems to me to be extraordinary.”

In those days, the Franco regime had sealed the frontier as part of a policy to bring the Gibraltarians to their knees.

The Anglophile Lopez Bravo was Foreign Minister at the time.

Apart from the sovereignty issue mooted by Russell, it was noted by Seconde that there were “other important aspects of our own policy in regard to Gibraltar where Sir J. Russell seems to argue from a curious standpoint.”

Mr. Seconde gave a few examples: Why is it so unnatural, when Señor Lopez Bravo proposes talks, that we should ask him what to talk about? (Up till now we have been led to believe that he was not insisting upon concessions on sovereignty now). Why is so much emphasis placed on the fact that we have not put forward proposals to improve Anglo/Spanish relations when Señor Lopex Bravo has himself never put forward one single concrete proposal?

And Mr. Seconde added: “Does Sir J. Russell realise the fact of life when he asks us whether the time has not come for a reading of the Riot Act to Gibraltar Minister?”

He went on: I wonder whether this sort of inter-change of correspondence between London and Madrid is getting us anywhere and whether the Ambassador should not be recalled for consultations again - or perhaps some Senior Official should visit Madrid.

Strong words in diplomatic language and quite a row in any language.

This is an extract of what Mr. Seconde told his colleagues:

The Instructions to the Ambassador, Interpreted at their Widest

“Towards the end of this letter Sir J. Russell argues in favour of “immobilism” for the next six months or so. I have minuted separately about this on the basis of an earlier letter he wrote to me. I think that as a tactical step there is something to be said for this insofar as it could carry us peacefully over the General Assembly and possibly an election period in the United Kingdom.

But what worries me about Sir J. Russell’s letter to the Permanent Under Secretary are the arguments which he adduces in favour of “immobilism” and of side-stepping the talks which the Spanish Foreign Minister has proposed. It is stated that Señor Lopez Bravo will undoubtedly wish to talk about the question of sovereignty over Gibraltar and it is also implied that this is a reasonable objective. What is more, it is implied that we should not only embark upon discussions about sovereignty, but that we should be prepared to negotiate “simultaneous and reciprocal gestures” with Spain (from the Spanish side these must presumably be read as the lifting of restrictions). This is so far away from the directives that Sir J. Russell has been receiving from London as to be disturbing.

When Señor Lopez Bravo first became Foreign Minister and the ‘nuevo clima’ was introduced, Sir J. Russell and the Governor of Gibraltar attended briefing meetings in London and saw the Secretary of State. As a result, detailed negotiating instructions were sent. These envisaged as a primary objective the lifting of the Spanish Foreign Minister certain limited ideas for collaboration between Spain and Gibraltar which could form a basis of more formal discussions later. If the lifting of restrictions were not exactly a pre-condition of the later discussions, it was at any rate made clear that they were an essential part of any practical progress being made. Moreover, it was emphasised that time would be needed for the Gibraltarians to adjust themselves to the idea of collaborating with Spain - and there was no question of any long-term solution involving a transfer of sovereignty being broached at such a stage in discussions. This represents briefly the tenor of Sir J. Russell’s instructions, interpreted at their very widest.”

Talk of the Town 

Don't rob the rock of its natural environment

Whatever the pros and cons of the new Controversy over planning, there is no doubt that there is much concern in Gibraltar about matters of development. 

The plan to build in the wooded areas near the Rock Hotel has been met with a developing storm. Don't rob the Rock of its natural environment, is how the Environmental Safety group put it. 

The danger of doing the wrong thing is that the mistake cannot be corrected, and the development remains as a monument to bad planning.

EUROPORT AREA

The Europort area has fast become a concrete jungle. When the present government took over they stopped a plan for some houses to be built along the seafront there, where a recreational area is now there for the enjoyment of the public in general. 

That was a step in the right direction, but given the track-record the GSD now have, it would appear it was done for party political reasons and not as a serious aim of policy. 

Because if they genuinely believe in green spaces and open areas, they would have implemented such policies on an ongoing basis. 

It is not that everything must be an open area. But what has been allowed to happen in the Europort area is a testimony to bad planning.

What was there initially was a high-rise concept, but the land was wide enough for the buildings to allow for pleasant surroundings. Now, yet another tall building is due to fill up a green area that could have been put to better public use, in the interests of Gibraltar as a whole. Thus, part of the seafront is again being removed from the public domain, and not available for recreational development.

It is as if our planners all lived outside Gibraltar and did not fully appreciate that the vast majority of people live in Gibraltar and would welcome more and better recreational areas within our frontiers.

ELECTRICITY DEPOT

Another scheme that stands out like a sore thumb is that of building a depot/offices for the electricity department plunk in the middle of that part of Rosia Road. Known as La Bateria, which is a recreational area.

Instead of building on the leisure concept, an electricity depot has reared it head next to a bar/restaurant and in an area where other leisure activities take place and where, with proper planning, further improvements in the public interest could have been developed.

Instead, a sectional interest policy was implemented. Now, some people have modern offices and private parking spaces! And in the wrong place by any stretch of the imagination. 

Are we going crackers?

PARLIAMENT

Another planning fiasco we have recently highlighted is that of having a kitchen/bar in the parliament building. It is bad enough that a bar is already there, but why make the matter worse by having another in the previous Tourist Office, now vacant?

It's scandalous, to say the least, that anyone should treat the seat of Gibraltar's parliamentary democracy with such disrespect.

Do the planners realise what they are suggesting? It is as if a commercial bar/kitchen was allowed inside the Houses of Parliament in London! 

Given that the Tourist Office moved out from there, the opportunity must be taken to improve facilities for the benefit of parliamentary activities…for the staff, for the members, for Gibraltar.

The last we heard from the Chief Minister's office was that a decision had not yet been taken. Let us hope that the final decision will be one which will do justice to Gibraltar's parliamentary institution.

QUEENSWAY QUAY

This was another bad decision. We have there a monster of a building, in the wrong place.

In fact, you cannot see the marina for the building and this was meant to be a yacht marina!

What is worse is that the government itself is a shareholder in this project. How can we destroy the concept of a seafront by covering it up with concrete?

When UK departments head much of the seafront, people used to complain. Understandably, the MOD and others required the premises for military purposes. Rut when they moue out, what do we do? We do exactly what we used lo complain about.

Now, the next stop is the Rock Hotel area, with concern being expressed about another project that would change the face of what has been a beautiful scenic part of Gibraltar, if allowed to proceed.

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