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With 'friends' like Spain, who needs enemies?
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Talking Point:
The Spanish government does not lose an opportunity to knock Gibraltar and its people. They are now trying to rubbish Gibraltar's new tax scheme, but the government is taking it easy as they reckon that the threat from Spain is not worth worrying about.
If you think about it, different EU countries have different tax rates - including within Spain itself! But, of course, the Spanish reaction has nothing to do with the tax, it is to do with their policy of knocking the Rock about everything.
Envy seems to be engulfed in the Spanish make-up. If Gibraltar prospers in any area, they do not do the sensible thing - which is to try and emulate us and also try to be successful.
Instead, they try to destroy our success because they cannot bear it that we are successful!
What a way to behave. And they clean forget that our success can also be to their benefit - ask the thousands of Spaniards who work in Gibraltar and who would join the long jobless list in Spain were it not for Gibraltar.
There are 4,500 registered Spanish workers in Gibraltar plus all the others who are not registered. When you add other nationalities, the figure climbs to around 8,000 registered frontier workers earning a living in Gibraltar - and spending their earnings largely in Spain.
With unemployment negligible in Gibraltar, the contrast with Spain is striking. Across in La Linea there are 10,000 unemployed, and in the Campo area it is 40,000. And in the whole of Spain itself it's around 5 or 6 million.
Yet, they do not appreciate the work opportunities there are in little Gibraltar for their own nationals.
In fact, Gibraltar is not looking for any praise, but certainly it is unreasonable and unfair that the Spanish government should be hell-bent in trying to destroy Gibraltar.
In La Linea, however, they have been appreciating what it means to be able to find a job just by crossing the frontier. They call Gibraltar a 'factory' and when frontier problems arise, they tend to come out against such pettiness.
Yet, Spanish oficialdom like to portray Gibraltar to the Spanish public, and beyond, for all the wrong things which are far more prevalent in Spain itself than here.
It is just an ongoing attempt at trying to black Gibraltar's name. With 'friends' like Spain, who needs enemies?
13-06-12
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