Michael Howard – ‘Show resolve’ over Gibraltar
Former Conservative leader Michael Howard caused a stir on social media after his appearance on the Sunday Politics regarding his comments about Spain and Gibraltar.
Interviewed by Andrew Neil, Howard stated that the British government should respond ‘as it has responded, by making it absolutely clear that we will stand by Gibraltar.’
He then continued: ‘35 years ago this week Andrew, another woman Prime Minister sent a taskforce halfway across the world to protect another small group of British people against another Spanish speaking country, and I’m absolutely clear that our current woman Prime Minister will show the same resolve in relation to Gibraltar as her predecessor did.’
Howard’s allusions to the Falklands campaign have invited comparisons to a clip from the 1990s satirical show Brass Eye, in which Chris Morris’s character incites a full scale war out of a simple trade agreement.
Fabian Picardo – Shared sovereignty ‘would strip us of who we are’
Interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show, Fabian Picardo, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, was asked by guest presenter Eddie Mair about the European Council’s draft negotiating document in which it asserts that Spain must have a right of veto over any future relationship with the British territory. Picardo responded that:
‘This is somebody else’s document. It’s not our document. If this were in the British document for the negotiations then I would be very upset and I would ensure it came out… This is what the other side are saying that one of the parties wants in the context of the negotiation. Well, I’m surprised this is all they’ve put in. They haven’t put in anything about the sovereignty of Gibraltar, which is what Spain we know wants. So to a very great extent, this has limited the application of the principle of Gibraltar in the context of what the EU is going to come to the table with, simply by Spain saying “Gibraltar must form part of the exit negotiations, but it cannot form part of the future deal negotiation.”’
When asked what would be so wrong if sovereignty was shared with Spain, Picardo countered that ‘it would strip us of who we are’ and asked ‘for what price would you sell Cornwall to the French?’ He continued: ‘The United Kingdom goes to war around the world about the principle of consent and the people of Gibraltar have expressed their views as to what they think the sovereignty of Gibraltar should be, democratically and freely.’
Michael Fallon – ‘Trade and security go together’
Also appearing on the Andrew Marr Show, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told Eddie Mair that ‘trade and security go together’ in the upcoming negotiations with the EU:
‘First of all, it’s very important to link trade and security, because what we’re now looking for is a deep and special partnership that covers both economic and security co-operation. Those two things go together…
‘…It’s very important that we go on committed to the security of the continent. This is the weekend we send 800 troops to Estonia. As part of our Nato commitment, we’re sending troops to Poland, we’re sending RAF Typhoons down to Romania. We’re stepping up our commitment to the security of the continent, because it remains our continent. And this is a very uncertain time for Europe and it is right that we should be playing our part in that, so these two things go together.’
When queried on Gibraltar, Fallon replied that ‘there cannot be a change in the status and sovereignty of Gibraltar, unless the people of Gibraltar agree to it, and they don’t’, adding that ‘Gibraltar is going to be protected all the way’.
Labour’s situation in 2017 local elections ‘pretty dire’
Speaking to Andrew Neil, the BBC’s election guru John Curtice gave his verdict on how the parties are likely to fare in the local elections this May. For the Labour party, the polls still make grim reading. Perhaps there is a crumb of comfort for the opposition, as Curtice explained:
‘Labour, of course, aren’t defending a great deal because this is for the most part, rural shire England. In fact, they only control three of the councils they’re defending, and they’re only defending around 500 or so seats, nearly a quarter of whom are actually in one county viz Durham. But the truth is that we have to remember that Labour’s position in the opinion polls has weakened over the last 12 months, and actually if you compare the position in the opinion polls now with where they were back in the spring of 2013, when these seats in England were last fought, we’re talking about a 12 point swing from Labour to Conservative. So I think in truth, Rallings and Thrasher’s estimate of 50 losses, that may be somewhat optimistic for Labour…’
The bad news didn’t stop there. Curtice acknowledged that Labour may take some comfort from mayoral elections in places like Manchester and Merseyside, but added that ‘there is one contest that we’re looking at very very closely, and that is the contest for Mayor of West Midlands, between Sion Simon and Andy Street… If you look at what happened in the general election back in 2015, Labour were basically 9 points ahead of the Conservatives across the West Midlands as a whole. You look at the swing since the 2015 general election… West Midlands now looks like a draw.’
Green Sky Thinking
The Greens co-leaders Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley told Eddie Mair on BBC One that they want ‘bold new ideas for the country’, and fresh from the party’s Spring Conference, they expanded on the boldest of these – the three day weekend.
Bartley stated that: ‘We’re facing the 21st century, a very uncertain world with big pressures from corporate globalisation… When I was a kid, we were told there’d be all this wealth created, we’d have this great technological advance, but you know what? What we’re seeing is just growing inequality, and we feel that people are being short changed…’
Lucas elaborated: ‘I think there is a lot of evidence that suggests that when people are exhausted their productivity goes down, and what we’re suggesting here is that we are now the sixth largest economy in the world. People are working ever more hours, getting ever more stressed, getting ever more ill health, mental health problems as well. What we want to do is take a step back and think, what is the purpose of the economy? What kind of country do we want to be?’
Clearly a country that thinks Brexit is being hijacked by a ‘right wing coup’ if Bartley’s comments are anything to go by…
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