One of the sillier historical anomalies is the status of Gibraltar, ceded to Britain at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. At that time Britain actually had a powerful fleet and could hope to dominate the Mediterranean. Gibraltar is still a strategic spot, but its importance to a Britain with just two aircraft carriers, and not much else, is small. In the time of Franco it might have been argued that Gibraltar was a safeguard in the event (unlikely after the devastating Spanish civil war) that Spain entered the war on the side of the Axis powers. But now Spain is integrated into the EU and its importance lies in the fact that it is concerned about both Gibraltar and Catalonian separatism, both of which inform its worldview. From the Spanish point of view anyone “leaving” anything cannot be tolerated.
What Britain should do is to offer Gibraltar in return for Spanish efforts to soften the term of Brexit. It would be worth it. It makes no sense to control a part of Spain from afar, even if the inhabitants want to remain British (something that can be fixed). Epicureanism is partly about not upsetting other people for no good reason. Let’s get along better with Spain. Britain needs all the friends it can get.
I’m sorry Robert but I strongly disagree with this. Most Gibraltarians want to stay British, the will of the people cannot be negated as a means of negotiation. And once Gibraltar leaves, there’s no guarantee that Spain would honour the terms of the agreement and push for softer terms for Brexit. Even if Spain became more Britain-friendly, it is only one nation amongst 27 that we would have to negotiate with.
From a Remain point of view, I think a bad deal is almost inevitable. Its clear that May wants total control of our borders. That means leaving the Single Market, which almost certainly means leaving the Customs Union as well. A ‘clean break’ is the only way the Leave campaign can keep their promises: remaining in the Single Market means contributing towards the EU budget, accepting most of its regulations, accepting free movement of labour; remaining in the Customs Union means accepting the Common Access Tariff with non EU countries- something the Leave campaign criticised for making non EU imports more expensive, even if it makes EU imports cheaper and reduces the cost of exporting to Europe by not requiring goods to the checked for their true country of origin.
We can only hope that her current utterances are made for bargaining purposes, and to keep the right-wing crazies quiet. I find it hard to believe that an intelligent woman like that is going to deliberately wreck the country. As for Gibraltar, have you ever been in a midst of a crowd of Spaniards talking about Gibraltar? British control is regarded as a huge stain upon the honour of the country, as if the Isle of Wight had remained under the control of France. They feel very, very strongly about it. You would get their attention if you talked seriously about a deal. All the same I agree with you that the Gibraltarians feel and are British by passport, even if a lot of them are really Spanish.