You are dealing with people, not cattle, Sr Margallo...

Dear Sir,

What an outburst by none other than Sr Margallo a Foreign Minister of the 21st Century.

They have problems of immense magnitude, financial, unemployment, scandals galore involving personalities and all that a Modern Democracy can think of is to return to the 18th century.

What surprises me most is that even his benefactor, Francisco, accepted the word ‘frontier’ if not check the 80 day passes issued to the Gibraltarians by the Spanish Government, the acceptance of the Bay of Gibraltar and its waters, admittedly you had ‘smokey Joe’ patrolling your half of the Bay and now once again Utrecht is paramount, mind you it has always been, but regrettably some here in Gibraltar thought that once democratic institutions were installed common sense would prevail, how wrong they were.

I feel that as the Foreign Minister of a so called democracy you have one avenue and only one to follow, take up the legal challenge and take your pick.

(a) The International Court of Justice.

(b) The European Court of Human Rights.

(c) The United Nations Security Council.

or any other you can think about, but please remember you are dealing with people and not cattle as was the case in the 18th century.

Yours faithfully,
W.L.Chamberland.

GSD Political Antagonism

Dear Sir,

For the past 15 years of the GSD administration. The GSD had created a lot of political antagonism in Parliament including endless insults to the then Opposition our Government today.

Mr. Peter Richard Caruana seems to want this type of antagonism to prevail in Parliament, after his attitude and performance during the first Parliament under the new administration.

The New GSLP/Lib Government who is working towards a new style of Parliament whereby issues of concerns and policies are duly debated properly can do without the Oppositions and that of Mr. Peter Richard Caruana unwarranted behavior in Parliament and at times nonsensical attitude. It seems to me that the GSD Opposition is content with this sort of behaviour and creating animosity. The speaker of the House should not tolerate this kind of attitude from the opposition especially from Mr. Peter Richard Caruana who still thinks he is still the Chief Minister of Gibraltar.

I therefore hope that the New Government and indeed the Speaker of the House does not allow the GSD Opposition and indeed its leader to get away with such attitude. We need to see a new style in Parliament, and a new approach. The electorate is already tied of the listening to name calling and an Opposition that not seem to want the Government to work and fix the many problems the GSD have left behind.

But of course if this does not suite Mr. Peter Richard Caruana he could always call it a day, and who knows we would even have a by-election.

Yours sincerely
B.S. Rayner

Last words on the billboard?

Dear Sir,

Amnesia now seems to have affected not only politicians but even Mr Barabich.

On the on going subject of Mr Levy’s Billboard, which incidentally had the support of most Gibraltarians, I cannot speak for the moving forward brigade, a spate of correspondence developed.

What follows is a verbatim summary from letters:-

In the first instance 18/11/2011, Mr Barabich's final paragraph stated,‘Mr Levy’s proposal was taken by the Development and Planning Commission, as opposed to the Government, and that it was taken on aesthetic grounds and as not to create a precedence. (mark the words – as opposed to Government).

Next we had Mr Lezano challenging Mr Barabich analysis, to the extent that he mentioned that a Minister (then from the GSD) was the Chairman.

We now have a letter from Mr Barabich adding, in fact more fuel to the fire although in my mind this had become more of a political petard, everyone is entitled to write and express opinions but what you cannot do is try to defend the Government of the day and yet write, ‘I have first hand experience of how Government pressure can be exerted for a particular decision to be taken in such government committee,’ followed by a worse statement that you cannot see a civil servant going against the wishes of a Minister.

If one cares to recap when Sr Moratinos made the historical visit to Gibraltar, one single individual was ousted from the upper Rock by the Police because he had a placard, expressing his and in fact most Gibraltarians sentiments and mark you the remarks were ‘today no demonstrations are allowed’ question by whom, so you see Ministers always seem to play their part.

Yours faithfully,
W.L.Chamberland.

Fixing inherited problems

I believe that we are facing the most hypocritical opposition that I have ever seen in our Parliament.

One example was the question by Ms I Ellul Hammond, to the Minister for Health with regards the shortage of beds in St Bernard's Hospital, when the GSD is the ultimate responsible for the problem, and that they did nothing to solve the problem during their 15 years in Government Another hypocritical question and attitude of the GSD Opposition was that of Mr. Figueras when he asked the Minister for Health what had happened to the trees. When they were ultimately responsible for cutting the trees and dumping them in the land reclamation by Catalan bay.

Perhaps the GSD Opposition when asking these kinds of questions should perhaps refresh their minds as nearly 100 percent of the problems which the new current Government is facing is thanks to the GSD, so perhaps they should allow the Government at least to fix the problems they have inherited from them.

Yours sincerely,
A.Otton

No Cervantes without Consulate?

Dear Sir,

A very interesting article by Thinking Allowed, I am not going to comment on the whole piece but suffice the part, ‘ should Cervantes be closed’.

I have to be very careful in my remarks because some time back I wrote against this Trojan Horse and a local, thinking that I was an ex-pat gave me stick, mind you after my reply he decided to shelve the issue.

My contention is very simple, if they want a Cervantes in Gibraltar, go just a bit further, combine it with a Spanish Consulate.

Yours faithfully,
W.L.Chamberland.

No Tripartite, No Cervantes

Dear Sir,

Once again, please allow me the use of your letters column.

The Spanish Foreign Minister has decided to call off the Tripartite talks. This has been followed by the withdrawal of the ferry to Algeciras, could this a political move?

Tripartite called off, therefore there is no cause to have the INSTITUTO CERVANTES in GIBRALTAR any more.

The government of Gibraltar should ask for the INSTITUTO to be withdrawn. It is about time we defend ourselves. The Instituto is more than a culteral organisation.

Thank You
Yours Faithfully
C.A. Alvarez

School reunion photo

Dear Sir,

Many thanks for publishing the group photo of the reunion of the class of 1952 entry into the Gibraltar Grammar School on the occasion of 60th anniversary, indeed for giving it such prominence.

Also present, at the event but not in the photo, was Eddie Hammond who took the photograph! Absent since the last reunion, following their demise, was Reggie Valarino and my also very good schooldays friend, Albert Trinidad. Also passed away before the previous was Richard Balloqui. All received a mention at the reunion and were sadly missed.

A number of other pupils were missing. Some who live locally could not make it, neither did a number of others who live overseas. Present for the occasion although he lives in England, was Eddie Picardo. Other absentees of the class of 1952 were a number of ex-pats who left Gibraltar a very long time ago and are not traceable.

I think it is fair to say that all the ex-pupils have done well in their chosen careers, among them Adolfo Canepa who did a term as Chief Minister.

R. A Barabich

Smuggling is the personal choice of the person buying the cigarettes

Dear Sir,

I noted with interest the letter by W Davis on the letter page the other day referring to tobacco smuggling. In this letter he cites the number of Spanish car drivers who park up, buy their cigarettes and then return to their cars to take the cigarettes into Spain. S/he also states that there are any number of tobacconists in Gibraltar with large numbers of customers… as well as those near to the airport and border. It is not illegal to sell cigarettes in Gibraltar! I, myself, buy my cigarettes in Gibraltar and I am a resident. There are, presumably, any numbers of residents who also buy their cigarettes here.

His/her contention that the government ‘must be making a tidy sum’ from the sale of tobacco is hardly cause for concern… it would be of concern if they WEREN’T making any money! Good heavens, where does s/he think the money comes from that helps to pay for the services that are available here? Tobacco sales in Gibraltar are one of the few items that one can buy here that are truly cheaper than elsewhere … the sale of perfume, alcohol, electronic goods and cameras etc are all to be found far cheaper on the internet. It seems that W Davis would like to see a genuine ‘money-maker’ for both the government and retailers wiped out at a stroke!

Further, the assertion that “Gibraltar I am afraid to say seems to be the dealer in this,” is to conflate two separate issues and is, therefore, an erroneous statement. The issue for the writer is that Gibraltar is acting as agent in an illegal activity and encouraging smuggling! ‘Dealers’ (s/he seems to use the word perjoratively ) are merely selling goods and, in this case, the goods are legal to buy and sell by registered retailers… so if there is any objection to the fact that the Spanish are transporting their cigarettes across the border into Spain… then it is the responsibility of the Customs and Excise staff to apprehend them! If a person decides to buy cigarettes that is a legal transaction… if he then decides to smuggle them across the border… that is illegal. Neither Gibraltarians nor the government is sanctioning smuggling… that is the personal choice of the person buying the cigarettes. Effective policing of these estates and on the border would be far more effective in discouraging smuggling… whilst also ridding these estates of miscreants. If these folk want to try their luck at smuggling, though, let them continue! The bottom line is that the retailers and the government are still getting their money!!

Another issue raised within the letter was that of raising the price of cigarettes to discourage people buying them… with the concomitant improvements in health. However, raising the price of cigarettes would tend to penalise the retailers and the government of profits and tax as fewer would be sold. One aspect of Gibraltar that I admire is the (relative) absence of ‘the nanny state’… people’s personal preference to smoke, drink, drive or participate in any legal activity is their own business and let’s keep it that way, please.

Yours faithfully
Gill Chesney-Green

Reminders for Caruana

Dear Sir,

Every day that passes I am more than convinced that the former Chief Minister Peter Caruana has either flipped or is under the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde syndrome.

His pronouncement in Algeciras in Spanish, maybe the reason for his offering Spain to open a Cervantes, quote ' Gibraltar no pretende "cambiar la postura de España"sobre las aguas', must surely stand out as his most disgusting ranting, mine you he is an expert in this field, since elected to office by the good people of Gibraltar.

In the first instance he is condoning a unilateral illegal act by Spain, Thesaurus quotes among others this meaning-- excuse, overlook, or make allowances for, so you Sir without a mandate to even sign anything with Spain now further come out in such a way as if Spain had a legal right to deny that Gibraltar has no waters because Utrecht does not mention this ( remind your friends that Art xi i.e Minorca does not mention waters.)

I once wrote and some people took umbrage, admittedly I now know who these persons support, because I said that in military terminology a useless commander would have been relieved of his command, I will now add that in the Navy it is a well known fact that when problems occur on board a ship the way forward is to remove the Captain, this even applies in the world of commerce when the shareholders can remove the CEO, well citizens you are those in Gibraltar's PLC.

We have already surrendered under Cordoba the airport, notwithstanding that the wishes of the people have not changed, he accepted that a dispute exists over the isthmus, the frontier/fence lark and the Bay of Gibraltar/Algeciras, are we now going to fold up on everything that our forefathers have fought for just to statisfy a personal ego, NO, NO and NO, if Spain wants to portray her Democratic Standing then the way forward for her is to take up the cudgels and go to Court, in the meantime all talks are off, not on the back burner but off 'ad infinitum', otherwise by the time the people next wake up there will be nothing to talk about except a Spanish Gibraltar, remember who it was that told a Spanish Magazine that what Spain should do is spoil us a little, so that we would in turn lower the Union Jack, ref page 7 of that interview.

Yours faithfully,
W.L.Chamberland.

A shameful act

Dear Sir,

The revelations in Peter Hain's book concerning Gibraltar make disturbing reading.

The British prime minister Tony Blair, foreign secretary Jack Straw, and the minister responsible for Gibraltar were all determined to impose on us Gibraltarians Spanish and British colonialism with their co-sovereignty proposals despite the preamble to the Gibraltar constitution.

The whole thing of course was a shameful act, and I say look more closely at the hypocrisy of Peter Hain when he said it was "ridiculous in the modern age for Britain to have a colony in the tip of Spain nearly 2000 miles away…"

But almost in the same breath the same people who grumble about having a colony in the tip of Spain failed miserably and shamefully to uphold their "honourable intentions" when it came to the military base Gibraltar, with their insistence that the base must remain under full British jurisdiction.

The argument is rather strange, for the Gibraltarians it goes like this. The British government has no objection to having a military base on the tip of Spain but in their splendid British tradition of diplomacy will arrogantly object to the Gibraltarians exercising their undeniable right to determine their own future and to develop their own community and economy in their own land.

As protectors they certainly have no patriotic fervour for the noble cause of the people of Gibraltar to the right to their land. And Gibraltarians are pained by the sordid political and materialistic attitude by Tony Blair when he said he "attached great importance to a close relationship with Spain" and "Spain is very important for our economic reform agenda in Europe" and did "not want Gibraltar as an obstacle to that important agenda…"

I cannot of course leave the subject of Peter Hain's piece on the issue of the joint sovereignty talks without referring to the part played by Peter Caruana as revealed by Peter Hain.

Again it is extremely difficult to avoid not believing that Peter Caruana said that an Andorra solution would be worth looking at - which led to the joint sovereignty talks.

When for more times now that most of us Gibraltarians can possibly be expected to remember Peter Caruana made many utterings in Spain of his willingness to discuss any proposals coming from Spain if presented at the tripartite forum.

Certainly we must not forget that the Andorra solution also hit the headlines sometime ago when Peter Caruana journeyed to Sevilla and make comments on an Andorra solution which shocked and angered many patriotic Gibraltarians.

Finally, there seems to be a far greater threat from inside our country then from outside. When Peter Hain made the significant but provocative comment "in early September 2001 I flew with Gibraltar airlines, the owner (Gaggero?) recognizing me and urging me to be brave, "the business community was frustrated by the uncompromising stance of local politicians and residents…" he said.

When shocks me is that a member of our community can express this nasty bit of prejudice we have enough of that from Spain.

Yours sincerely,
Francis Gonzalez

Policing the frontier

Dear Sir,

The eastern end of the frontier fence used to be effectively policed for us by the other side.

As recently as the early 90s, if you were brazen enough to swim off the end of the runway, the Francoist police would open fire from their watchtower on the Spanish side.

They don’t seem to do this anymore.

Perhaps this is due to cutbacks, or the availability of video/phone cams has made them reconsider how they engage with the public.

Yours,
Paul Hodkinson

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