Spain are about as happy with Gibraltar being British territory, as the Argentinians are re: the Falkland Islands. And similarly, usually around election time, a huge stink gets kicked up for domestic 'Wag The Dog' type purposes.ecureilx wrote:maybe off thread, but Spain is happy with The Rock being under the Brits ?x9200 wrote:How about Gibraltar? Cyprus got its reputation already for years. Gibraltar with big gambling industry and recurring question on money laundering but being a part of EU and British overseas territory (with Spain being very happy) is far more intriguing.
I thought they have been dying to get their hands on Gibraltar .. including occasional blockades of cars/show of force etc. etc.
There were road blockades re: GIB some years back. It has no airport, so the road blockade was an attempt to put a strangle-hold on 'the rock'.
[It was the first port of call for my father during WW2, Singapore bound:- UK, GIB, Malta, Cyprus, Palestine (now Lebanon/Israel), Suez/Egypt, and luckily for him that's when the war ended. GIB has loooong been a very strategic outpost, for centuries, both geographically and militarily].
I know very little about the place, it is tiny. I hadn't realised it was a gambling place. IME it is more a place where pensioners visit for a bit of easy going Brit-friendly winter sun. I am also unaware that it's an 'offshore' banking centre... can't say I've heard that before. Maybe!?
Probably one of the biggest stories out of GIB in recent years, was the SAS '''executing''' (allegedly) an IRA covert cell on the streets there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flavius