Effect of Brexit on Gibraltar Puns

1. How much of a threat is the Spain/Gibraltar question to the #Brexit summit on Sunday? This issue has the potential to be either a) huge or b) to disappear in to a puff of smoke

2. Spain feels hoodwinked. Gibraltar is of huge national interest (and hurt pride) for many Spaniards. Many at the very least saw an opportunity with #Brexit to gain considerable influence over the Rock

3. At the beginning of #Brexit negotiations Spain was promised that no decisions could be taken over the future of Gibraltar without consultation with Spain which is why throughout the negotiations process, there have been bilateral Spain-U.K. talks in parallel

4. BUT when EU-U.K. talks reached an impasse over the Irish border backstop, Barnier and his team proposed going into a ‘tunnel’ - blocking out political and media noise to maximise chances of sealing a deal. It is in that tunnel time that Spain feels it was ‘betrayed’

5. Suddenly the Irish backstop became a U.K.-wide customs area - meaning it was potentially straying in to post-#Brexit trade deal territory. Neither there in that text, nor in the draft of the political declaration on EU-UK future relations was there mention of Gibraltar

6. Spain feels its positive attitude in the EU-U.K. bilateral talks was now being taken for granted and that their concerns over Gibraltar were being ‘sacrificed’ to give an extra something to the U.K. in negotiations. The European Commission denies this

7. But Spain is not alone in feeling that their national interests were ignored during ‘tunnel’ negotiations. France, Denmark and the Netherlands feel let down by their EU negotiators over pinning down ongoing fishing rights in U.K. waters after #Brexit for example

8. Spanish PM Sanchez is hugely pro-European. Sees himself as a bit of a Macron #2. It’s not in his nature to scupper EU plans or an EU summit. Remember when Italy’s Salvini refusedto taken in migrant boats, Sanchez was the first to volunteer help BUT

9. He’s under a lot of domestic pressure over Gibraltar and he heads a minority government. It’s just possible he’s learned from Salvini - if you dig in your heels in the EU, you can get results. Remember the EU thought it possible to hold the #Brexit summit in December instead..

10. The Commission thinks this can be solved without reopening the #Brexit texts by noting Spain’s insistence on continuing U.K.-Madrid bilateral talks regarding post-Brexit relations in a declaration added to the texts or other EU formulas

11. It’

The Spanish handed over sovereignty of Gibraltar port to the British forever. This was from the treaty of Utrecht.

But just the PORT, not the rest of the peninsula.

So the original town area is entirely British free & clear. So of the current 6.7 square km of Gibraltar peninsula, the UK rightfully holds the deed to a 0.4 square km stretch along the coast in the north west of the land territory as well as the navigational approaches.

So while the UK has a right to this, they never had any right to the rest of the pinninsula, which over time they have settled population on & thus while appearing democratic to British people to have a vote where most say they want to stay British, it is irrelevant as it was basically just a finders keepers referendum where British people settled on stolen land and voted to keep the stolen land.

The Spanish despute with gibraltar is mostly the seas around it. Which having the whole peninsula allows the UK to add insult to injury & steal quite a bit of extra sea territory off Spain. Basically after Brexit, if it is kept & no deal on jurisdiction is reached after Brexit. Then people from Algeciras will have to sail 40–60km around Gibraltar to avoid British claimed territory.

So over the past 304 years of the British being unrelenting dickheads over the issue & not returning to the actual treaty terms of Utrecht 1715. The Spanish argument has devolved into the just as unsophisticated argument of give it back & fuck off back home.

Which in fairness is kind of fair as the treaty is only valid if its terms are kept.

By not sticking to the port & stealing the rest, they basically invalidated their own claim via the treaty to be there at all.

Unsurprisingly the UK not honouring treaties & breaking its word & engaging in skullduggery is kind of a British trait.

After all the UK didnt get the international moniker down the centuries of “Perfidious Albion” for nothing. For those who dont recognise the phrase. It was very common the world over pre WW1. It basically ment the British where fundamentally & inherently untrustworthy & never met a treaty they wouldnt break & then spend centuries bickering about later.

Note the UK very recently land grabbed Diego Garcia well because the UK was bigger and more powerful than their opponents.