Who cares about the Royal Navy shooting up a Spanish flag off Gibraltar?

| 02-12-2009 | Spanish Politics • UK Politics | Written by Matthew Bennett

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So the Royal Navy shot up a buoy which was or wasn’t flying a red and yellow Spanish flag five miles off the coast of Gibraltar a couple of weeks ago. Who cares?

Spanish people care. The British press, though, hardly thought it worth a mention:

In the UK, few newspapers picked up the story. The Times, for example, mentioned the conflict yesterday and 11 readers took the time to leave a comment. El Mundo published a story about it and more than 54o readers left comments.

That seems about right to me. From the very time I came to Spain, Gibraltar has clearly been a touchy subject.

Sitting in Bea’s mum’s house one lunchtime 11 years ago, Carmen stuffed me with fried squid and meatballs and then good-heartedly made the most of my inability to open my mouth with the big question-accusation: “What about Gibraltar, then? Spanish Gibraltar!“

A decade later, the British ambassador has apologised with supreme indifference and London has taken the opportunity to remind Madrid that its Civil Guards should stay out of Gibraltar’s territorial waters.

“Gibraltar doesn’t have any territorial waters!” reply the Spaniards, “look at the small print of the Treaty of Utrecht! And you shot our flag!“

“Terribly sorry, old chap, will have a word with our boys. It was only a red and yellow marker buoy pennant though.“

“It was a Spanish flag! The Royal Navy machine-gunned it. We have photos.“

“Well, ok, but please have your Civil Guards stay out of our territorial waters.“

“Gibraltar doesn’t have any territorial waters, according to the Treaty of Utrecht. And the runway and the airport are illegal too.“

“Your foreign minister looked awfully smart in that photo with Miliband on top of the Rock. What shall we do with the 99% of Gibraltar residents who wish to remain British subjects?“

“Err….perhaps we could turn it into a theme park with the monkeys.“

Things probably weren’t helped by coming so soon after a Spanish loss of face over the ransom payment to the Somali pirates to buy the freedom of the Alakrana’s fishermen.

I wonder what will happen next?