GIBRALTAR today Letters

Congratulations from Spain

Dear friends of Gibraltar ,

Congratulations for the 3rd Centenary of British Gibraltar!

I, as a Spanish citizen who loves peace, people and animals, prefer that Gibraltar continues being British.

I consider Gibraltar a model of civilisation, multiculturality, ethnic diversity, and respect to people and animals.

Monkeys are free and respected in Gibraltar. But in Spain, that is not possible.

Here, some people says that "love bulls"; this means, you know, they love bullfights.

I prefer Gibraltarian sensibility and culture.

So, I prefer British Gibraltar, not Spanish.

Best regards to Gibraltar!

Santi Mas

Barcelona - SPAIN

Good luck!

Sir,
May we wish Gibraltar 'Good Luck' on your 300th Anniversary. We have visited the Rock on three occasions, the last in February this year.

On that occasion we signed your petition and bought a flag - it is flying on our flagpole at this minute.

KEEP GIBRALTAR BRITISH!

Cathrine and Russell Short
Hampshire
England

Well done!

Sir,

Congratulations to you Gibraltar, well done.

It's your island and may you always keep it that way.

Have a great day!

Regards, Alma Saxton, UK

Happy Birthday

Sir,

Happy Birthday, Gibraltar.

FROM:

Rodney Pereira, Portsmouth

Keep flag as it is

Sir,

With all due respect to John Sciacaluga, Gibraltar's beloved national flag should be left well alone. The constituent parts of the United Kingdom still have their own distinctive flags, so why should Gibraltar's flag be permanently subsumed into the Union Jack? It represents everyone in Gibraltar, irrespective of whether they favour free association (incorrectly termed 'self-determination') or integration.

However, the flag featuring Gibraltar's flag superimposed on the Union Jack, which was displayed during the 2002 referendum, is a clever design. In fact, I sent a picture of it to the Flags of the World website www.fotw.net eighteen months ago, but they still haven't put it on- not surprising, as the editor of the Gibraltar page is Spanish!

Yours,
Ken Westmoreland

Will UK retaliate against USA?

Sir,

With the US Naval giving into Spain and not sending a ship to the 300 year celebrations in Gibraltar one must ask if the British Government will now withdraw it's invitation to the US Government to send ships to the UK Fleet Review at the Solent in 2005?

If the US Navy do attend the Fleet Review they will rightly have to face a charge of being hypocrites.

Yours,

Chris White, UK

Reform party supports new event conditions

Dear Sir,

Those who have been paying attention to our statements will of course know that we have never been 'against' the event as such. They will also know that we have always said that we approve the actual principle of the 'round-the-rock' idea. It is an important gesture of Gibraltarian solidarity on our three hundredth anniversary.

What we did not agree with were the former corporate features of the event. These constituted what we saw as inappropriate commercialisation. However, it now seems as if those aspects have been removed, both regarding the day itself and also the recordings to commemorate it afterwards. If this is really true, then we congratulate the good sense of the people responsible for this wise new direction.

Further to that, we have no hesitation in endorsing the event under the new non-commercial conditions. We therefore encourage all Gibraltarians to attend, appropriately attired.

We also acknowledge, and indeed reciprocate, the 'olive branch' extended to us recently by some of our former opponents in this matter.

Vivien Dawson, spokeswoman

Not coming

Dear sir,

WHILE travelling to the airport my Mother Diana was taken very ill. We hoped, following a car crash several weeks ago- she would be able to celebrate the 300th Anniversary celebrations of Gibraltar. My family delegation decided, we had no choice but to cancel our visit this week to the Rock.

My deepest apologies to the Holding Hands Committee, VOGG, Self-Determination, Womens Assoc, and other community groups.

We wish my mother a speedy recovery. I intend to come for National Day Celebrations next month for four days.

Kevin Kelway

Parts of Campo should be handed over

Sir,

Spanish claims to Gibraltar have got nowhere. As a result they seek to be obstructive as they can at every turn. Let's all try a different tack to remove this unpleasantness.

The British Government should ask Spain to hand over parts of the Campo and make La Linea, Sotogrande etc part of Gibraltar.

Spain would loose an area which costs it's central government little - well, they spend little to nothing on it at this time and they would also loose a perceived thorn (well to them) in their side.

Gibraltar would gain land to grow. All those Spaniards who currently live in the area to he hand over who don't want to stay could move to San Roque.

Everyone would be happy. Come on Mr Blair what have you to loose other than the continual Spanish bleating we all have to suffer at this time.

Yours faithfully,

Chris White, UK

Interference in internal affair

Sir,

Once more Spain attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of Gibraltar.

Isn't about time that Spain gave up it's futile quest and seek other avenues for it's rantings and ravings. There are a whole field of new ventures for the Spanish Foreign Ministry - It could, for example, try and recover all its former colonies in Central and South America. It may have more success.

Yours faithfully,

Chris White, UK

Out of external borders...

Sir,

So, we are out of the EU's external borders. That being the case, should we not apply the rules and regulations that befits a territory which is not within the internal borders, such as asking for passports etc?

Yours sincerely,

D. Evans

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