Royal Navy warships have forced a an armed Spanish ship to retreat from British waters around Gibraltar.
Typical Spaniards, resorting to sneaky, dirty tactics thinking that us Brits would back down!
Bulldog spirit
Then again, these days they were probably odds on that Britain would back down. We have become a spineless nation bearing little or no resemblance to the nation that stood up to Napoleon and then Hitler.
We have become a nation of weaklings and leftist whiners. If the Second World War were to happen today, we’d be Italy or worse, France.
Neville Chamberlain wouldn’t meet with Hitler to discuss peace or appeasement, today he would be handing over our unconditional surrender. Well, perhaps that is a little too harsh, there are after all some quarters wherein the bulldog spirit still lies, typically the hard done by working class.
In fact a little sabre rattling or even a good war normally goes down well with those people. It certainly worked for Maggie Thatcher, although rumours that Gordon Brown has orchestrated the whole affair, or even a war, appear unfounded.
hypocrites
The Spanish are complete hypocrites when it comes to claiming bits of land. They whinge and complain about Gibraltar, which they lost fair and square, demanding that the Rock and the 30,000 inhabitants be handed straight over to them, despite the fact that the 30,000 overwhelmingly don’t want to be Spanish.
Yet, at the same time they are keeping control of Ceuta which is across the Med in Morocco! They claim that it is part of the Spanish State and therefore belongs to them, despite being in Morocco itselt and despite Morocco repeatedly trying to claim it.
Melilla is another example, a good 100 miles away from Spain itself, this Spanish town is also located in Morocco, which also claims it. Each of these ‘Spanish’ towns has more than double the population of Gibraltar, and Spain has no intention of ever letting them go.
Nor do they have any intention of letting the Moroccans have back; Penon de Velez de la Gomera, the islands of Penon de Alhucemas and Islas Chafarinas,despite them being in Morocco, or just off the coast.
This of course begs the question, if they won’t give their former colony its land back, why on Earth should we hand over 30,000 Brits, living on 2 square miles of rock?
History
Gibraltar ended up in British hands during the War of the Spanish Succession. When the Treaty was signed ending that war, the Spanish gave the British Gibraltar permanently as part of the peace agreement. Clearly the Spanish word for permanently isn’t quite as permanent as the English one.
The duplicitous Spaniards took each and every opportunity since then to get the Island back, including siding with the American’s in the War of Independence and laying siege to Gibraltar with the French for three years.
At the end of the day though, it is just a rock and few people in Britain really care about a lump of rock in the Mediterranean. But is is the people that live there that matter. In 1967 the Islanders were asked whether they wanted to join Spain, they voted 12,138 to 44 against. Pretty conclusive.
Another referendum was held in 2002, 17,900 to 187 against joining Spain. Clearly however joining Spain is becoming more popular, so in about another 1000 years, Spain will get Gibraltar back peacefully!
Incidentally, the Channel Islands, just off the coast of France, have never been claimed back by France.
Naval Power
Although no longer the naval power she once was, Britain still has the most poweful navy in Europe (excluding Russia). Britain has two aircraft carriers, although both of them are a bit shit. Spain has just the one.
Spain has 8 submarines, but Britain has 17.
When it comes to Destroyers, the British have 11, the Spanish, just the one. But things are more closely matched in Frigates, Britain has 21 Frigates, Spain has 15.
Of course the naval power isn’t all that relevent when you consider that Spain shares a border with Gibraltar and can just pop troops over. Still it is worth noting, as is the fact that the RAF is three times larger than the Spanish airforce, and that Britain has more active troops.
In the unlikely event that Spain, like its former colony Argentina, may try and take its claim by force, it is reassuring to know that Britain is more than capable of fighting its corner. Of course having the equipment and having the will are two entirely different things, but Gordon won’t be in power for much longer.
The Spanish, and others, are likely sensing a weakness in Brown’s Britain, hopefully our next leader will have more balls, and give the Spanish a bloody nose.
4 responses so far ↓
Monty // May 27, 2009 at 11:57 am |
The other bit is that they claim Gibraltar is far away from the UK (which is an irrelevant point).
Especially ridiculous when you consider that they claim the Canary Islands are ‘integral’ to the Spanish state – however they are far further away from the Spanish mainland than Gibraltar is from the UK.
What is more, Gibraltar does not claim to be part of the UK – but it is British (like the UK, and the Channel Islands, and …)
Charlie // May 27, 2009 at 1:35 pm |
Thanks for the comment Monty, good point about the Canary Islands, they are of course worth far more to the Spanish that Gibraltar is to us.
Perhaps the next time the Spanish decide to close the border, cut the gas, electricity or water to Gibraltar, we should impose a similar air and sea blockade of the Canary Islands.
Then again that would require a PM with backbone and balls.
The Spaniard // June 19, 2009 at 8:52 pm |
Britain´s naval and military power proved isufficient when China stood up to Britain over Hong Kong. Britain didn´t have the guts to speak of self-determination for Hong Kong or the wishes of her ex- colony´s population because she knew China was not to be fooled or held out on. During the Falklands war England needed all the help of the USA and NATO to defeat an isolated country and even contemplated a nuclear attack. That´s the sad truth of your country, you valiant britons.
Charlie // June 20, 2009 at 1:57 am |
What utter rubbish!
China has given Hong Kong a kind of autonomy unparalleled in modern China, only Taiwan has similar rights, and they are not even part of China. At the end of the day Britain didn’t really have a leg to stand on, it was a 99 year lease, I am sure that countries like Spain would have been first in line claiming foul had we reneged on that deal.
There was no lease on Gibraltar nor on the Falklands.
The USA provided no help whatsoever in the Falklands war, nor did NATO. Indeed the US didn’t want Britain to go to war at all and wanted us to settle it peacefully, i.e. give another Spanish speaking nation full rights over a rock, regardless of what its people wanted.
There was never any talk of a nuclear attack, that is ridiculous.
Look I have nothing against Spain, just their ridiculous claims on land that doesn’t belong to them. I notice you didn’t mention the Spanish cities in Morocco! What would you do with Gibraltar if you had it?
Anyway the Spanish too are valiant, after all we’d all be speaking French were it not for your courageous efforts during the Napoleonic wars. Take the Battle of Talavera for instance, when the Spanish were spooked by their own rifles and fled the field! Were would we be today without such noble acts!