Tuesday 4 April 2017

the rock or europa point

Residents of British territory of Gibraltar have doubtless seen more contentious times under the regime of Francisco Franco when the border was blockaded and trade suspended by a series of embargoes and transit was not normalised until 1985 and of course when it was captured as a naval base during the War of Spanish Succession in the early sixteenth century.
Having asserted their continued link to Great Britain on multiple occasions and no desire to rejoin Spain, the majority of Gibraltarians voted to remain part of the European Union. Though Madrid has given no indication of a change in policy or posture towards the exclave it claims as its own, the formal triggering of Article 50 is inspiring some rather baffling, hostile remarks from the metropolitan care-taker government, including the foreign minister arguing that Gibraltar is not for sale or subject to bargaining and comparisons to the conflict in the Falklands