New Year’s Messages

Dr Joseph Garcia
Liberal Party leader 

THREE STEP STRATEGY FOR 2003

The last eighteen months have seen Gibraltar immersed in the most serious political crisis in our history. For the first time, the United Kingdom has announced in Parliament that they have agreed with Spain the principle of sharing sovereignty over Gibraltar. The latest reports suggest that no specific proposals have been concluded only because London and Madrid have been unable to agree on their so called red line issues.

There are two important lessons to be learnt from the last eighteen months. The first is that the Brussels agreement needs to be killed off completely and forever. We can no longer afford to be complacent because the Foreign Ministers are not meeting or because the talks have been stalled. It was seen very clearly in July 2001 how a process that was dormant for many years could quite simply be revived with a vengeance. We cannot allow that to happen again in the future.

CONDEMNED RELAUNCH

That is why when Jack Straw and Josep Pique revived the Brussels process, the Liberal Party and the GSLP condemned the relaunch. The GSD Government did not condemn it. When the Minister for Europe Peter Hain came to Gibraltar and gave his views on the way forward in September 2001, it was again the Opposition that condemned his comments. The GSD Government did not condemn Mr Hain.

The second lesson to be learnt from the last eighteen months is that the politics of ambiguity and of lack of clarity do not work. You cannot be all things to all men and make statements in the knowledge that they will mean different things to different people. It is now crystal clear that speaking with a forked tongue serves only to build up expectations in both London and Madrid and ends up making matters worse when those expectations, forwhatever reason, do not materialse. Plain speaking from the start avoids this problem.

A clear and recent example of this was seen in the House of Assembly debate last month on a motion which welcomed the referendum result. The GSD Government sought to introduce the concept of "reasonable dialogue" in a motion which had nothing to do with it. It should be blatantly obvious that what is "reasonable" to one person could be "unreasonable" to the next.

Indeed, Blair, Straw, Hain, Aznar and Pique all think that the existing negotiating process is "reasonable". Judging by the referendum result, most of us think otherwise.

NO SOVEREIGNTY TALKS

Given that the term "reasonable" is open to interpretation, the Opposition sought to qualify its meaning in such a way as to exclude discussions on the sovereignty of Gibraltar from any talks. This sought to bring the position of Gibraltar on a par with that of the Falkland Islands where sovereignty is not a matter for discussion with Argentina and nobody thinks that this is unreasonable. The GSD Government did not agree and they left the door open to discussions on sovereignty with Spain by voting down the Opposition amendment.

This comes after the enormous effort by the whole of Gibraltar to derail the Anglo-Spanish plan to share sovereignty, which included many representative bodies and individual citizens. Indeed, it runs against the mood of the people that the GSD Government has now chosen to leave the door open to sovereignty talks with Spain after everything that Gibraltar has endured in the last eighteen months. Ask yourself this question. Why did they not close the door on sovereignty talks in the House of Assembly when they had the chance last month?

The view that the GSLP/Liberal Opposition has taken is that sovereignty is not a matter for discussion with Spain. The referendum was a massive rejection of sharing sovereignty with Spain, therefore there is nothing more to talk about in this respect. In a recent letter I received as

Liberal Party Leader from Foreign Office Minister Denis MacShane the British Government have said that they have not ignored the results of the referendum. Mr MacShane added that "we appreciate and respect that that it is an expression of how the people feel at this time." This is a significant statement and it adds to the Opposition's view that there can be no further sovereignty discussions with Spain until such a time as the result of the November 7th referendum is overturned by another one.

THREE STEPS

In contrast to the continuing ambiguity from other quarters, our position is rock solid and clear cut. The way forward is in three steps which can progress simultaneously. First the Brussels process must be destroyed.

Second, no sovereignty discussions. Third, we must now move with the new constitution that was unanimously approved by the whole House of Assembly in February 2002. It is a matter for regret that the Government are moving at snail's pace on this issue.

Internally, there is also much to done. The fact that the Chief Minister has been dealing with external affairs has meant that the governing of Gibraltar has practically ground to a halt. There are seven other highly paid Ministers who have to wait for decisions from Convent Place before anything moves. All power and control is based on the centre with little action and seemingly even less independent thought. This is not the kind of Government that Gibraltar wants or needs at such a crucial juncture in our history.

LOCAL ISSUES IMPORTANT

Local issues cannot remain a prisoner of external matters and the two should be taken forward together hand in hand. The state of our health service continues to leave much to be desired. It is tragic that we have reached the sad stage where practically everyone you know has some mishap or other to report. The reaction of the Government is to say that all is well. We know that all is far from well. In many other areas the internal quality of life which affects all of us has been abandoned and neglected for too long. Gibraltar can do better than this and we all deserve better. This is not good enough.

The Liberal Party, together with our allies in the GSLP, are getting ready for an election in 2003. We intend to put forward a team of candidates and a range of modern and forward-looking policies that will appeal to you all. These will be policies designed to generate economic wealth and prosperity for our people. We want to make Gibraltar a better place in which to live. For this reason we have already met and will continue to meet the major representative bodies in Gibraltar to learn what we can do to help.

As 2003 opens we ask you to share in the new and dynamic way forward that we wish to provide, and when the time comes, we will ask you to support this message in the polls.

Daniel Feetham, 
Leader of the Labour Party

Without the shadow of a doubt, Gibraltar’s Referendum has been the defining event of the last 18 months. The year 2003 will, in our view, be a defining year for Gibraltar. This is the year Gibraltar needs clarity on the issue of constitutional development. It is also the final year into the GSD Government’s second term in office whether or not the Chief Minister decides to call an early general election. People will not only have the opportunity to judge the Government’s record on domestic issues but also at a time when Mr. Bossano has reaffirmed his decision to lead his party in two more general elections whatever the results, those seeking an alternative to the Government will need to ask the key question whether the Opposition can win the next election or indeed, the election after next. This is how the Labour Party views those challenges for the year ahead. 

DOMESTIC ISSUES

2002 saw a proliferation of domestic problems affecting Gibraltar from sewers to the appalling state of the Upper Rock. The supporters of the Government put this down to a Government which concentrated on defending Gibraltar for most of the year. No one has been more supportive of the Government during this crisis than the Labour Party but this is a feeble excuse. For instance, housing has again become a major social issue but this is not a problem that has suddenly reared its head in 2002. It is a problem that could and should have been tackled earlier. Instead at the tail end of its second term, the Government announces it will construct over 500 houses but most of these projects will take up to 6 years. Similarly with health it has taken the Government the best part of two terms in Government to announce a review which will take time to make recommen-dations. Having an effective health service is a matter of life and death. The time is for action not further studies. 

Our public services too face a crisis and government’s answer to that is open confrontation with the workers despite legitimate grievances about the conditions in which many work. In contrast when services are privatised or “contracted out” they hardly seem to complain when things go wrong. The Labour Party believes that whether in the private or public sector, if you improve the conditions in which people work, people will respond accordingly. That is a point we continually emphasised throughout 2002 (e.g. Upper Rock workers). . On those occasions when the Government has sat down with workers in meaningful dialogue, progress has been made. Industrial relations must run on a more effective footing. That is the lesson the Government must learn as we move into 2003 and it is a point we will continue to emphasise until it is put right. 

In the field of pensions some public servants continue to be faced with the iniquitous situation of seeing the years served prior to a break in service not counting for their pensions. Likewise divorced women who have dedicated their lives to their families continue to be faced with a future without pension entitlements. In the private sector there are still no compulsory occupational schemes along the lines of Government owned companies.

These are all areas we have continuously asked the Government to tackle and will continue to do so in 2003.

THE ECONOMY: THE NEED FOR LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLANNING AND INVESTMENT IN SKILLS

Over the last year the finance sector has also suffered the lowest number of company incorporations in years.

This in no small measure can be attributed to the uncertainty surrounding the Government’s tax reform proposals. 

We continue to be in a position where we have no serious prospect of being able to market our tax regime with any degree of certainty. That has placed unbearable strain on the finance sector and investor confidence has suffered as a result. This uncertainty is bound to continue into 2003. 

The Labour Party believes that if we are to avoid further uncertainties in the future it is essential that there is effective long term planning. To ensure Gibraltar continues to be successful, the Government has to embark on an economic diversification programme and it needs to create an environment for sustained economic development in the areas of maximum growth potential for Gibraltar. To do so we must not only properly identify the markets and the products of the future, we must also ensure that any economic programme is skills based, encourages enterprise and rewards success. Central to this philosophy is the notion that if you train local people with roots in Gibraltar in the products of the future and create a proper climate for those products to develop, you are more likely to have a deeper commitment from businesses specialising in those products. 

This argument can be tested in relation to the banking sector. All too often banks have been reluctant to bring back-office facilities and skill based operations to Gibraltar because those skills were not immediately available locally. The Government, on the other hand, has tried to encourage skills to Gibraltar by providing tax incentives for highly paid relocated executives. However, tax incentives for expatriates on their own is not enough to create a local skill based environment because it does not always ensure that skills are passed on to local people. The result for the banking sector (and other financial sectors within the finance industry) is that we have a small, viable industry made up of very competent staff but which in no way rivals the skill based industry of Cayman’s or the Channel Islands. Unless we are able to ensure that local people at a medium to higher acquire the necessary skills in areas such as portfolio management and investment advice, the banking industry will continue to contract, and in the end we will see more banks leaving Gibraltar. A future Labour Government is committed to reversing this decline. We have the expertise and commitment to do so. 

DIVISIONS IN THE LEFT

There has been much talk as of late of the split in the Left in Gibraltar. Some people would also like to think that this is the make or break year for the Labour Party. They are wrong. Gibraltar needs a credible alternative to the GSD. The Government is struggling in many areas of policy, yet the Opposition are unable to challenge them on many issues. We feel it is therefore our duty to do so and when the Opposition fail to provide a credible alternative, people will rightly look for alternatives elsewhere. Indeed, at a time when Mr. Bossano has reiterated his intention to continue to lead the GSLP for the next two elections at least the key question for those in the Left will be whether the Opposition is capable of winning not only the next election but the election after next. If the answer to those questions is “no” then a vote for the Opposition at the next election will be a wasted vote. It leaves those wanting an alternative government putting their trust in a party that is destined to lose the next 2 elections. That is the cold and stark reality staring the left in the face. 

OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FUTURE

We believe that in rejecting shared sovereignty at the referendum, the people of Gibraltar rejected any transfer of sovereignty. We also rejected as unacceptable any process, whose purpose is the transfer of sovereignty, whatever name or terms of reference are invented to camouflage its real intention. That is my position, that of the Labour Party, and of the people of Gibraltar as a whole.

2002 was the year in which we said “no”. 2003 must be the year in which we must tell Britain how we see our future relationship with it. During the critical months Gibraltar has just lived through we have seen British Parliamentarians and the British people at their best. No Gibraltarian could fail to have been impressed and moved by their loyalty to Gibraltar despite the hostility from their own Government. 

Andrew Rosindell MP and others in Parliament and in Gibraltar have also shown, that the idea of integration with Britain is gaining currency and that Britain should follow the example of her European partners in meeting the needs and the political realities of all her dependent territories by making them part of metropolitan Britain. 

Indeed, as the European Union Representation Bill goes through Parliament, many MP’s are asking themselves the question: if the European Court has ruled that the people of Gibraltar, as such, should have the vote for European elections, shouldn’t they have representation in the British Parliament? It is a powerful and pervasive argument.

Before we formed as a political party we had developed close links with MPs in Britain, who see devolved Integration as the best option for Gibraltar’s decolonisation. Today, strengthened by the presence in our Executive of Maurice Xiberras, whose Integrationist credentials are second to none, I commit the Labour Party to securing for the people of Gibraltar the option of devolved Integration as the best means of securing our decolonisation and in the belief that the needs and aspirations of the vast majority of the people of Gibraltar would be best served by this. To those that say that integration has already been rejected by the UK in the past, remember that in the same memorandum the UK rejected any further devolution by constitutional reform. To us this is a long-term commitment and we will not be deterred by further rejections from this Labour Government. We look forward to collaborating with all who are of like mind in developing the case for integration.


Lyana Armstrong-Emery,
I.L.F. Leader


As I do every year, I’ll start off this message by personally wishing all Gibraltar residents a happy and successful New Year. I also forecast a particularly busy one for everyone here on our Rock, and not just in our private lives. It seems increasingly difficult for many people to maintain the juggling act of home, work, family and everything else these days. On top of all that, there is a growing sense afoot that ‘crunch time’ is arriving for the Rock community as a whole.

How can we secure our future as a people ? Thousands (possibly millions) of words have been written or said over the past year, here and overseas, about Gibraltar’s situation and the possibilities and problems linked to it. I’ll add just a few more words.

By the way, if you’d rather have a book-length thesis, just contact us and we’ll be pleased to send you any or all of our press releases or policy documents.

We all know the public highlights of the last twelve months.

The mass demonstration in March, the other demonstrations, the referendum in November, the visits to Gibraltar by UK politicians, the visits to UK, UN and EU by Gibraltar politicians, the pronouncements by Spain and Britain and so on.

All these vital ‘external’ matters have dominated the thinking of many of us. Some of us have been equally concerned, too, about the domestic side of politics here.

Although we are all absorbed by our international situation it would be a mistake to lose sight of the many needs our society continues to have for the social well-being of our day to day collective life.

The environment, social fairness and a truly progressive view of public services or working life are (among others) just as vital as topics for debate as the Brussels Process (which the I.L.F. has always opposed) or Devolved Integration or proportional representation (both of which we have always supported).

In the midst of this festive season, it’s probably been something of a relief to most people to switch off from all these concerns for a few days. But normal life will soon resume, as it must. One thing is sure, 2003 will be a roller-coaster year for Gibraltar. Somebody once said that anyone wanting a quiet life has done badly to be born in the present century.

I think that’s nowhere more true than here on the Rock today.

We in the I.L.F. have confidence in Gibraltar, in the ability of all our people to rise to all the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead. Our Party joins with me in assuring local residents of our unswerving commitment to the struggle for our common future. We have confidence in the eventual, inevitable victory. As I’ve explained, we clearly see this future as lying in both spheres simultaneously, the internal and the external.

We will continue to work for both, in 2003 and beyond. We invite all those in Gibraltar who share our distinctive vision to join us.

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