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Britain and Spain spat over disputed Gibraltar amid claims of bullying

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British warship to visit Gibraltar amid border row with Spain | Reuters

Gibraltar-Spain border: Britain makes formal complaint | World news | The Guardian

UK stays committed to Gibraltar in latest row with Spain - CNN.com

BBC News - Gibraltar tensions strain UK-Spain ties

Gibraltar row: Spain is using the latest spat to drown out corruption scandal at home | David Mathieson | Comment is free | theguardian.com

Spain is acting like a schoolyard bully towards Gibraltar. Britain must stand up to Madrid
By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: August 8th, 2013

Spain is acting like a schoolyard bully towards Gibraltar. Britain must stand up to Madrid – Telegraph Blogs

The 30,000 inhabitants of Gibraltar are bravely standing up to a futile campaign of intimidation by Spain. As The Telegraph reported earlier this week, the Spanish government is threatening “to impose a new border tax, close its airspace to planes using the British overseas territory’s airport, and investigate the affairs of Gibraltarians with Spanish economic interests,” all in an effort to harass the people of Gibraltar, the vast majority of whom are British citizens. This follows no less than 200 unlawful incursions by Spanish state vessels in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters last year. Madrid is acting like a schoolyard bully, behaving in a manner that is unbecoming of a major European democracy.
Inevitably comparisons must be drawn between Spain’s stance over Gibraltar, and Argentina’s considerably more menacing approach towards the Falkland Islands. Significantly, in a show of solidarity, the Government of the Falklands has sent a strong message of support to the people of Gibraltar:
The Honourable Ian Hansen has sent a letter to Chief Minister Fabian Picardo:
“On behalf of the people and Government of the Falkland Islands, I would like to say how concerned we are to learn of the rising tensions between yourselves and Spain.
We are pleased to hear the strong messages from the British Government in support of Gibraltar and would like to echo those sentiments. We hope that the situation does not escalate and that a swift resolution to the current crisis can be found.
We send our warm good wishes to our friends in Gibraltar and wish to let them know that we are thinking of them during this difficult time.”
Fortunately, the relatively mild-mannered Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, is no Cristina Kirchner, and unlike Argentina, Spain is an important NATO ally and partner in Europe. But like his Latin American counterpart, Rajoy is increasingly unpopular at home, and faces major economic challenges – much of which he inherited from the big spending Socialist government that came before him. His approval rating has slumped, while unemployment has hit a staggering 26 percent (rising to more than 50 percent among Spanish youth). In a recent poll, in the wake of damaging allegations of corruption leveled against the ruling party, 86 percent of Spaniards declared “they did not trust Mr. Rajoy,” with support for his Popular Party falling to just 23 percent. There can be no doubt that the Rajoy government’s renewed posturing over Gibraltar is a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from troubles at home, which will only grow worse in the coming months. It is also showing the same callous disregard for the principle of self-determination displayed by Ms. Kirchner 8,000 miles away in the South Atlantic.
Madrid’s strategy will be a combination of making life as difficult as possible for the people of Gibraltar, while drumming up support for its position in southern Europe – appealing to Portugal, Greece and Italy for example. Spain will also seek to woo both the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats on the issue, seeking to divide political opinion in the UK. As Peter Hain’s remarks make abundantly clear, the Labour government under Tony Blair had been willing to cut a deal with Spain to share sovereignty over Gibraltar, a deal that would have been nothing less than a complete betrayal of its inhabitants.
To its credit, the present British government has sent a clear signal to Spain that any attempt to intimidate Gibraltar will not succeed. The prime minister and foreign secretary have both been in contact with their Spanish counterparts to express their concerns. It should be abundantly evident to Spain that it has no interest in picking a fight over this issue, which it cannot win – certainly as long as a Conservative-led government remains in power in the UK. The visit by Royal Navy warships to Gibraltar later this month (already planned as part of a routine naval exercise in the Mediterranean en route to the Gulf) will send a clear signal to Madrid that Britain will protect the territorial waters around Gibraltar if threatened.
Like the inhabitants of the Falklands, the people of Gibraltar have the right to self-determination, a right they emphatically exercised in a referendum in 2002, where 98.5 percent of Gibraltarians rejected the idea of joint UK-Spanish sovereignty. Gibraltar has full internal self-government through an elected House of Assembly, and has an association with Britain stretching back more than 300 years. Gibraltar deserves the support of all who believe in the principles of sovereignty and freedom. As Margaret Thatcher robustly put it at a press conference in 1982 when asked about the future of Gibraltar:
As you know, we have consistently said that the wishes of the inhabitants of Gibraltar are paramount and those would be our first consideration. That after all, and I cannot stress it too often, is what democracy is all about—not imposing something upon the peoples of a territory but consulting them about their wishes.
 
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Gibraltar was always a bone of contention between the Iberians and Brits.

I still wonder how come it has taken this turn after years of neglecting the issue.

The crisis is really pitting European countries against each other.
 
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Gibraltar was always a bone of contention between the Iberians and Brits.

I still wonder how come it has taken this turn after years of neglecting the issue.

The crisis is really pitting European countries against each other.

Hmm,interesting and it's not the only place in Europe where this kind of things happened.A few days ago some hungarian politicians came to Romania and talked about autonomy for hungarians,our president responded today by saying that "Hungary is a troublemaker and very soon Romania would put a leash on Hungary"...Maybe it's time for a good,old fashioned european war,we haven't had one in 68 years,it will get us moving and progress even further like all the wars we had,it's not necessarilly a bad thing,pump some money in the defence industries,rebuild after that(no biggy 'cause we've done it before) the immigrants will get out of here out of fear of beeing caught in a war,this won't be cousy welfare Europe anymore.:coffee:
 
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The times of the colonial empire are past. It's time to bring back overseas colonies to the real owners.
 
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The times of the colonial empire are past. It's time to bring back overseas colonies to the real owners.

Time for the Central part of Asia,Caucasus to return to their former muslim masters,the Kurile to Japan,Siberia and East Asian parts to China.Are you forgetting about these territories @vostok,you self righteous piece of communist swine? Or how about Karelia be returned to Finland because it was stolen when bolshevik barbarians invaded tiny Finland in 1939.How about that @vostok,you piece of commie trash??? An opinion on that you failure of a human beeing? From now on i will troll your commie a$$ to debunk and spit back at you all your *****.
 
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Nice to know the whole world is going ape $hit and its not just us south Asians @Armstrong

The Anglo-Saxons heated conflicts around the world. This is only the beginning. After all, the only truly effective solution to all the problems of the United States - a big war. The Anglo-Saxons have done this a few times. But this time the task is more difficult - China, unlike Hitler, not a puppet of the Anglo-Saxons and force China to attack Russia is much more difficult, if not impossible. Therefore they will set fire everywhere, in the hope that sooner or later the fire reaches the competitors.
 
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The Anglo-Saxons heated conflicts around the world. This is only the beginning. After all, the only truly effective solution to all the problems of the United States - a big war. The Anglo-Saxons have done this a few times. But this time the task is more difficult - China, unlike Hitler, not a puppet of the Anglo-Saxons and force China to attack Russia is much more difficult, if not impossible. Therefore they will set fire everywhere, in the hope that sooner or later the fire reaches the competitors.


Russians have the biggest record of killing as an organised state in all of humanity.Russians commited genocide upon muslims in the Caucasus,central ans eastern Asia.Russians stole land from the poles,swedes,finns,romanians in Europe and from muslims,chinese,japanese in Asia.A major conflict must come so that these territories will be returned to their rightfull masters and liberated from russian opression.

Also @vostok is a very frustrated individual,he is very sad that his personal god,the mad mass murderer rapist stalin,is rotting in hell burning for eternity for all his crimes.
 
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LoL flamer why are you going so berserk?

I'm tired of the @vostok troll man,i'm tired,on every tread he's like "anglo saxons most evil,russian good angels,stalin very good man only western propaganda say stalin bad"....i can't take it anymore,this clown is beyond stupid.
 
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Hmm,interesting and it's not the only place in Europe where this kind of things happened.A few days ago some hungarian politicians came to Romania and talked about autonomy for hungarians,our president responded today by saying that "Hungary is a troublemaker and very soon Romania would put a leash on Hungary"...Maybe it's time for a good,old fashioned european war,we haven't had one in 68 years,it will get us moving and progress even further like all the wars we had,it's not necessarilly a bad thing,pump some money in the defence industries,rebuild after that(no biggy 'cause we've done it before) the immigrants will get out of here out of fear of beeing caught in a war,this won't be cousy welfare Europe anymore.:coffee:

No offence but why did you bring Hungary and Romania? These countries hardly matter even in Europe let alone world historically, its always been about western europe.
 
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No offence but why did you bring Hungary and Romania? These countries hardly matter even in Europe let alone world historically, its always been about western europe.

I was talking about the general atmosphere in Europe.Define "always" :)
Btw ,WW1 began because a serb killed the archduke of Austria-Hungary,if you would be familiar with european politics you would know that tiniest of our countries could ignite the largest fire.;)

The biggest threat for Europe are Hungary's and Greece large extremist parties(and growing in the polls) Jobbik and Golden Dawn.Succes for those parties encourages extremists and voters in other countries or facilitates the appearence of extremists as a self defence mechanism in others,for example if you have a party like Jobbik in Hungary who militates for a Greater Hungary you will soon have extremists in Romania,Slovakia and Serbia in response.It's a intertwined spirall.
 
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Hmm,interesting and it's not the only place in Europe where this kind of things happened.A few days ago some hungarian politicians came to Romania and talked about autonomy for hungarians,our president responded today by saying that "Hungary is a troublemaker and very soon Romania would put a leash on Hungary"...Maybe it's time for a good,old fashioned european war,we haven't had one in 68 years,it will get us moving and progress even further like all the wars we had,it's not necessarilly a bad thing,pump some money in the defence industries,rebuild after that(no biggy 'cause we've done it before) the immigrants will get out of here out of fear of beeing caught in a war,this won't be cousy welfare Europe anymore.:coffee:

Jokes apart, You know that US won't let it happen.

1- NATO will collapse, which means American allied troops would be busy killing each other.

2- Right wing politicians across the European landscape will take the opportunity to seize power.

3- Euro will be nullified completely except leading countries like the Germany and France.

4- Economies of India and China will take a serious hit. With you guys killing each other, we both will have to forget rivalries and integrate more with each other --- something that we DON'T want as Chinese already enjoy a high trade surplus advantage.

5- With NATO in-fighting, your entire Middle East zone would be in chaos and Afghanistan operation will be beyond repair.

6- Russia and China will be laughing their heads off pointing at EU. :D

But like I said, US will do its nut to ensure that the war doesn't re-start among prime NATO powers from Europe, and try to restrict any war to Eastern European countries only.
 
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Jokes apart, You know that US won't let it happen.

1- NATO will collapse, which means American allied troops would be busy killing each other.

2- Right wing politicians across the European landscape will take the opportunity to seize power.

3- Euro will be nullified completely except leading countries like the Germany and France.

4- Economies of India and China will take a serious hit. With you guys killing each other, we both will have to forget rivalries and integrate more with each other --- something that we DON'T want as Chinese already enjoy a high trade surplus advantage.

5- With NATO in-fighting, your entire Middle East zone would be in chaos and Afghanistan operation will be beyond repair.

6- Russia and China will be laughing their heads off pointing at EU. :D

But like I said, US will do its nut to ensure that the war doesn't re-start among prime NATO powers from Europe, and try to restrict any war to Eastern European countries only.

As i've said any fire spreads in Europe,it always did,but i was joking as you've pointed out,i find it hard for a war to start but the rise of extremism is something we must be worried about and treat it seriously plus ,in time of recession goverments always find "outside enemies" to divert attention.
 
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