I
received an email from The Convent on Tuesday. My heart sunk: what have I
written that’s upset them now? Nothing for once. Instead it was a link to
Parliamentary Questions at which Gibraltar had been the subject.
The
three I am going to quote you are from Jim Dobbin. He is the Labour MP for
Heywood and Middleton and is one of the cross party Parliamentarians who ask
informed questions of Ministers about Gibraltar. I remember meeting him at the
Gibraltar Reception at the Labour Party Conference two years ago.
The first question was: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs how many incursions into British Gibraltar territorial
waters there have been over the last six months.
Well the Secretary of State didn’t
reply but David Lidington, who is the Minister of State (Europe and NATO) at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, answered this one and the other two.
Lidington stated: There have been
176 unlawful incursions into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters by
Spanish state vessels in the period from 1 November 2012 to 30
April 2013.
We will pause here whilst Danny “I
see no ships” Feetham gets his abacus out and totals his own figures.
Whilst he does that I must admit I
was surprised at the total which is just under 30 a month or around one a day.
Next Jim Dobbin wanted to know: “what
steps he has taken to deter illegal incursions into British Gibraltar territorial
waters by Spanish Civil Guard boats.”
To this David Lidington replied,
although I doubt if he was at the helm himself “The Royal
Navy challenges Guardia
Civil vessels whenever they make unlawful incursions into
British (BGTW). We also make formal diplomatic protests
to the Spanish Government about all such incursions.
We will continue to do all that is necessary to uphold British sovereignty over
BGTW.”
When I am sure readers have their
own views on that.
Finally Jim Dobbin asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs how many times the Spanish Ambassador has been summoned to
the Foreign Office over the last 12 months in
respect of Spanish incursions into British Gibraltar territorial
waters.
Now it is this reply that I find the
most interesting. David Lidington told Jim Dobbin: “The Spanish ambassador
has been publicly summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office once in
the last 12 months in respect of unlawful incursions into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters by
Spanish state vessels.”
So let us get this right: over a six
month period there have been 176 illegal incursions by the Spanish State
vessels into our waters which equates to around one a day. And how often has
the Spanish Ambassador been summoned to the Foreign Office to explain these
actions. The reply is once – in the last 12 months.
You will note the answer is once in
the last 12 months, not six months, so in the last six months the answer could
be no times at all.
Far be it from me to tell the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office how to do its business. However if the Spanish
Ambassador had been summoned to the Foreign Office basically every day for the
last six months to explain his Government’s actions, maybe, just maybe, Spain
would take the illegal incursions in to our waters a little more seriously.
Having said that I fear another
email from The Convent is on the way.
