Fabian goes to UN

“…during the Covid crisis, when Gibraltar’s economy was being ravaged like everyone else’s, it provided free vaccines to all legally registered Spanish cross frontier workers and paid full salaries to all of them on furlough.” Fabian Picardo Chief Minister of Gibraltar at the United Nations June2022

This are the messages Gibraltar needs to get across. These are the things a tiny piece of land of 5.8 square kilometres does without thought to help their Spanish workers who were under lockdown in Spain for longer than Gibraltar was. Gibraltar’s Chief Ministers have been telling the world since Sir Joshua Hassan first stepped on the UN’s soft plush carpet in 1963 mansplaining what our situation was and why we wanted, no, needed, to be delisted as a colony. We have been on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories since 1946!

Every Gibraltarian knows there have been many attempts to woo them back into spanish arms each one thwarted by referendum or UK standing ground, literally. This article on wikipedia is an excellent summary of the main events and attempts by the Spanish including the current situation after Brexit was decided by the UK although Gibraltar wanted to remain. I’m sure the Spanish saw the irony in that.

It seems our incumbent Chief Minister will still be heading to the U.N. in the coming years but perhaps soon if we get a treaty with the EU (who do not recognise Gibraltar as UK territory) and Spain leave well alone we can continue to self govern and live in peace without that “verja“