Monday 5 August 2013

Gibraltar, Spain, sabre rattling* etc.

When Spanish politicians start yapping on about Gibraltar to their voters minds off the dire state of their economy, corruption scandals, poor safety record of their railways etc, it always reminds me of the mirror image dispute between Spain and Morocco.

They're all as bad as each other.

* How can you rattle a sabre? It's a single, solid object, it's not like a set of keys or a handful of change or something.

10 comments:

Sobers said...

Presumably you rattle it in its scabbard, threatening to pull it out, and use it.

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't amaze me to learn the whole thing is a reliable indicator that Spain's total economic collapse will happen any week now.

Funnily enough, I'd assumed Italy would be next but maybe the Spanish will beat them to it.

Lola said...

FT - quite. It's the Adolf Hitler Theory of National Management - when it all goes tits up find an external diversion to blame.

Funnily enough I have just set out to read Mein Kampf.

ageing man said...

if you crossed a rattle snake with a sabre toothed tiger..... I bet you could rattle a sabre then.

As for taking your mind off things....isn't that what George Orwell illustrating inter alia in 1984.... are the Spanish the ooooonly ones guilty ?

I fear not.... the radical westerners have been using the same trick for years over al qaeda.....

It seems that Spain must be picking on Gibraltar as they are short of monkey shit perhaps ?

Mark Wadsworth said...

S, fair point, but wouldn't it a bit more impressive to actually remove the weapon from the scabbard first and then wave it about?

FT, Oh good grief, whichever overseas bit of "British" territory are the Italians hankering after?

L, Godwin's Law! As it happens the Nazis were far more cunning, they ran massive deficits to finance build up of armed forces and then when it was payback time in 1939 or so, wham!

AM, they're different species, that won't work.

Sure, for the Spaniards have Gibraltar, we have Help To Sell and house price rises, it's all the same crap (like I originally said).

DBC Reed said...

If in doubt on political skulduggery cite Machiavelli: he certainly used statements like "he kept the minds of the barons occupied by that war" but seventy years later Shakespeare nailed it with the advice given by the dying Henry 1V to Prince Hal to " busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels".And all in iambic pentameters too.He really gets on your nerves, Shakespeare.Too good.

ageing man said...

I think they have already bridged the gap.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_snake

For me Spain is more than welcome to Gibraltar.... I have always found these conclaves of little britain dotted around the planet to be somewhat an anathema.

Of course the residents of these conclaves will insist on keeping their M&S, red letter boxes and the good old bobby on the beat.

Still I am pleased to see Davey C has declared he is seriously concerned at the escalating tensions....phew Gibraltar can sleep easy tonight. God help them if Davey C had only been jokingly concerned....

Diversion politics is very in vogue these days.... hey oh

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, what's worse, sabre rattling or house price bubbling?

AM, I quite like these little enclaves, precisely because they are such an anachronism, but I can understand why everybody else hates them. Would we like it if the Spanish controlled the Isle of Wight? If the Argentinians controlled the Hebrides?

ageing man said...

Spain ruling the Isle of Wight.... now there's a thought.... I've been to the IoW once, can't see the point of going back, but if the spanish ruled that would be fab.

No pissing about with cheap airlines to fly to spain, all the sun you can handle, siesta in the afternoon, fab Spanish food and all the san miguel you can drink....and all on your own door step but a red funnel cruise away.....

Thinking about it, maybe these enclaves are not such a bad idea after all..... I shall write to the Spanish Foreign Office immediately and tell them.... bugger the monkeys come and grab your self a slice of the Isle of Wight....but leave your crappy €uro at home.

As for the Hebrides aren't they being fracked any time soon ? No let's keep them, we need all the fracking money we can get.

Anonymous said...

"Of course the residents of these conclaves will insist on keeping their M&S, red letter boxes and the good old bobby on the beat. "

Some Spanish folk appreciate it as well - over 4,000 of them work there. The nearest town to Gibraltar, La Linea has a population of some 70k and over a seventh of them are unemployed. Lots of people from La Linea get the bus to Gibraltar for work.

Spain is presently suffering a 28% unemployment rate.