TALKING OF COALITIONS

The first Gibraltarian politician I interviewed was Dr Joseph Garcia. He was then the young leader of the unelected GNP; today he is Deputy Chief Minister and leader of the Liberals who have three MPs. Back in the mid 1990s he was very young. Of course today he is still young: it is me that has grown much older. The GSLP Liberal government is built on a firm coalition so today we talk coalitions.

David Eade: I know many people on the left in the UK are intrigued by the coalition between the GSLP and our Liberals. They are intrigued by the longevity of the pact and how it worked in both opposition and in government. Neal Lawson, the chairperson of the Compass action group which advocates a broad coalition of the left between socialists, liberals, environmentalists etc has studied our left coalition. What would be your message to those seeking a similar alliance to which you have helped create here?

Dr Joseph Garcia: It is often a mistake to attempt to transpose the political situation in one country to that of another in this context because the histories, parties, policies and personalities are not the same. The reality is that there are examples of long-lived political pacts in the Iberian peninsula. The one that springs to mind is Convergenica y Unio who are now the Government of Catalunya. It is made up of two parties, Union Democratica de Catalunya, which is in the Christian Democrat International and Convergencia Democratica de Catalunya, whose members are closely involved in Liberal International. This relationship has worked for them, in Government and in Opposition for decades.

I know that there are many people in the Liberal Democrat party in the UK and also in the Labour party who consider that a broad coalition of the left is the way forward. The political scene in the United Kingdom is unusually fluid at this moment in time so I suppose that anything could happen in the future. There may need to be an overriding national issue which makes it important for parties to cooperate and work together. In

Gibraltar, about 16 years ago now, that issue was that our position in the EU was being seriously undermined by Spain.

DE: The coalition in the UK between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems seems to be a case history in how not to achieve an alliance. Do you think the coalition as constructed after the 2010 election was a mistake?

Dr Garcia: I have friends in the UK Liberal Democrats, and indeed in the Conservative and Labour parties so I have to answer with a degree of caution. I think part of the problem in the UK is that people are not used to coalition politics. The negotiations that follow general elections elsewhere in Europe, when there is no overall majority, provide a considerable degree of give and take and this is very common. I have discussed this over the years with Liberal Ministers in places like the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany where coalitions are the norm. This is not the case in the United Kingdom because the electoral system has traditionally favoured the election of majority Governments. There was no majority Government elected last time round and two parties had to agree on a common programme which meant that both had to make compromises in the wider interests of the country. The case studies of Gibraltar and Catalunya will show that it is much easier if the programme for Government is agreed before the election and not afterwards!

DE: It is interesting the number of people who cut their political teeth with the GNP then the Liberals who have gone on to hold posts in the GSLP, GSD and indeed the PDP. There was dynamism in the party in those early years, do you feel the Liberals have now lost that edge and why did those talents jump ship?

Dr Garcia: Somebody on the other side of the political divide once told me that we started as a political project ten years too early. Maybe he was right who knows!

DE: The GSD recently took issue with the Liberals, as a political party, being allowed a separate platform in a broadcast debate arguing they all but merged with the GSLP. Given the close alliance how do you still define the Liberals as being an independent party from the GSLP?

Dr Garcia: These arguments are well-worn now and over a decade old. Each party has its own members, its own Executive and its own ideas which come together in the parliamentary group as they have done for more than ten years. We have contested elections together in 1999, 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2011. It is probably safe to say that the system is tried and tested.  The Liberal Party brings a very important international dimension to the table as a full voting member of Liberal International, the worldwide

federation of Liberal political parties. We started this work at a senior level soon after the 1996 general election. We have since then had the opportunity to meet and lobby politicians, parliamentarians and Government Ministers from countries all over the world. It is no secret that Simon Hughes MP, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Graham Watson MEP are both influential friends of Gibraltar inside the party. I am also lucky to count them as my own friends. We have seen that the support of the UK Coalition Government on issues like Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands is almost unprecedented. It is why David Cameron and Nick Clegg included the reference to defence of our right to self-determination in the Mid Term review and why the Queen's Speech mentioned the support of this right for the first time in my political memory. These international and particularly European connections, thanks to Graham Watson MEP, are now serving Gibraltar well in Government. This was clear during the high profile visit that the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and I made to Brussels earlier this year. We are also promoting our contacts with Liberal parties and Governments in other countries.

DE: Finally the million dollar question. Given the closeness of the GSLP and Liberals, given the man or woman on Main Street doesn't know whether say for instance, and I am just choosing two names at random here, Steven Linares is a Liberal or Paul Balban a socialist, to them it is all one government, is there a case for the two parties to merge?

Dr Garcia: There are two parties but one Government. This is the same as it was in Opposition from 1999 until the end of 2011. All that has changed is that we now have the opportunity to put our ideas and our policies into practice. The truth is that the present system has worked and continues to work very well for Gibraltar as a whole. The GSLP/Liberal Government is committed to deliver our manifesto to the electorate and I know that every single one of us is working hard to ensure that this happens.

WE ARE A COMMUNITY FIRST

Gibraltar is a nation as too is Britain and Spain. However they are very different animals. Gibraltar is first and foremost a community and a nation second whilst Britain and Spain are nations in which there live many communities.

When it comes to politics this means that Gibraltar is or should be embraced by community politics. In contrast whilst Spain is also currently embroiled in a general election it is national politics that holds sway; the communities have their say on other days.

This is the first election in which Gibraltar’s parties have fought it out in the social media. Earlier this year the chief minister stood up in parliament and described Facebook and the nation’s addiction to it as “waffle”. Yet when last month he launched his party’s website he told Gibraltar the internet and social media have “transformed for the better” the way that politics works on the Rock. Nothing strange there: the chief minister faces two ways on many issues not least on Gibraltar’s sovereignty.

I have seen statistics that show 63.23 per cent of Gibraltarians are on Facebook which equates to just over 90 per cent of the online population. By now it is probably more. At first sight this is a strange fact given the closeness of the community where without putting yourself out too much you could see everybody you want each day. Yet if the medium has changed, the message hasn’t because Gibraltarians have always interacted with each other. Once it was on the doorstep that people swapped their news; now they still do but they also doorstep on Facebook.

It therefore follows that when it comes to an election the people of Gibraltar are far more involved than they are in Spain or indeed Britain. Virtually every issue impacts directly on our life be it the state of housing or the state of the economy. In a community the day to day politics is the politics of your life not what happens in some far off place or to other people.

Community politicians are a different breed to national politicians. They know the mood of the people around them, not in the New Labour mould through focus groups or in depth research, but because the electorate tell them face to face. They share the same experiences in their daily lives. They walk the streets, queue for the buses, dodge the puddles with the rest of us. National politicians stand out like a sore thumb in the community, they are strangers amongst their own people – and both sides know it.

The GSLP Liberal and PDP Facebook pages and websites give Gibraltarians who are on-line immediate access to podcasts and statements on current news and events. Yet you can engage with these politicians on the same issues face to face because they are of the community in which you live; they live on the same street as you live.

The problem for the GSD is that the chief minister’s description of Facebook as “waffle” reflected his strongly held view at the time. Hence it was the view of his party too. GSD MPs who were on Facebook discussion groups were ordered to cease their activity and suddenly became overnight non-people. Now the chief minister’s sister has taken to being one of Facebook’s heaviest users he tells us the medium has “transformed for the better” our political scene. Hence the GSD decides to embrace social media and is in the painful game of catch up. It’s not painful to them but it is painful for us to see as they do on-line today what others were doing yesterday, or the day before.

Nobody could argue anything other than Joe Bossano, Fabian Picardo, Dr Joseph Garcia or Keith Azopardi are community politicians. Four very different people but cast in the same community politics mould. They identify and empathise with the people around them. Sadly the same cannot be said of the chief minister who cannot even make it to the plane without having his official car drive him to the boarding steps. He is not of the people but above the people. A community politician he is not. It remains to be seen whether on December 8 he will pay the price.

CARUANA’S GIBRALTAR VERSUS THE REAL GIBRALTAR

Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999 so it will come as no surprise to you that he writes a blog for the Daily Telegraph. Recently he penned an item: “Gibraltarians understand what it means to be British. Do we?” Sorry Mr Hannan, I take the view that Gibraltarians are Gibraltarians; the days of empire are over albeit probably not for Torygraph readers or Conservative politicians.

Mr Hannan has been chatting to the chief minister in London so now has a clear view of Caruana’s Gibraltar. Sadly it doesn’t match up to reality on the Rock but no surprises there either.

Hannan writes: “As recently as thirty years ago, 60 per cent of Gibraltar’s GDP came from the Ministry of Defence. Now that figure has fallen to six per cent, and the Rock's extraordinarily diversified economy includes financial services and online gaming. As it weaned itself off government spending, Gib became wealthier, happier and freer. There is no banking crisis here, no structural unemployment, no austerity programme; the government continues to run healthy surpluses. Indeed, the only thing that puzzles me is that the Chief Minister, Peter Caruana, who has presided over this transformation since 1996, and who is up for re-election in a couple of weeks' time, should not enjoy 99 per cent approval ratings.”

So I asked Dr Joseph Garcia for his take on Hannan’s words. Not only is he the leader of the Liberal Party but has an unrivalled grasp on the history of Gibraltar – so is the ideal person to put the real Gibraltar in to context. He told me: “The analysis made by the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan is somewhat superficial and unduly generous to Mr Caruana. It is true that UK defence spending in Gibraltar has reduced considerably over the years. However, Gibraltar has not received a penny from the UK in development aid since 1986. This predates Caruana’s coming into power by a decade. The adjustment to transform the economy from a sheltered MOD based economy into a commercial one also predates Caruana coming into office. The naval dockyard, which was the Rock’s largest employer, closed down in 1984/5. It fell directly to Sir Joshua Hassan’s AACR (Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights) Government and that of his predecessor Joe Bossano (Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party) to deal with the transformation of Gibraltar’s economic base.

“The Caruana Government built on the foundations that were laid by others. For example, bunkering of ships in the Bay and the origins of the offshore gaming industry were both present in Gibraltar before Caruana came into office. The MEP says that there is no banking crisis in Gibraltar. Of course there is no banking crisis. There are no "Gibraltarian" owned banks and there is no Gibraltarian currency. The main retail banks that operate in Gibraltar are branches of UK banks. The same squeeze on lending that exists in the United Kingdom also exists in Gibraltar where it has become increasingly difficult for businesses to obtain loans and for potential homebuyers to obtain a mortgage. Indeed, the Caruana Government itself recently announced its intention to mortgage £20 million of its own office blocks in order to raise capital to finance the construction of a private office development because private sources of finance were unavailable to the developers in Gibraltar. It is only comparatively recently that the Caruana Government has recognised that there is an unemployment problem for Gibraltar residents which has been generated by the influx of cross-border labour from Spain. The Government has resorted to setting up a scheme in certain industries, for example, by which companies that obtain Government contracts will have to employ locally resident labour. This came after years of arguing that those who were out of work were either too choosy or simply did not want to work.”

Oh that Caruana’s Gibraltar existed in reality and not just within his haven at Number Six. He obviously takes it out for walks on occasion, even to London, what a pity that gullible politicians like Mr Hannan believe all they are told and don’t question what is fact and what is fiction.

A suggestion: next time you enjoy the chief minister’s hospitality, Mr Hannan, ask him about Gibraltar’s 500,000 million pound debt. In his July budget speech the Leader of the Opposition, Fabian Picardo, said that equalled 23,762 pounds per voter. The UK’s Office for National Statistics put British debt at 33,100 pounds per household, so far lower than Gibraltar’s. When you mention that to the chief minister Mr Hannan make sure he isn’t eating a sausage roll!

GIBRALTAR’S BEST CONNECTED POLITICIAN

A week ago a photograph appeared in the Gibraltar media. It showed the leader of Gibraltar’s Liberal Party, Dr Joseph Garcia, sitting down with the deputy leader of the UK’s Lib Dems, Simon Hughes. They say every picture tells a story and the real story here wasn’t they’d had a chat after the memorial service for the former Mayor of Southwark, Hilary Wines, which they did, but that the Gibraltar Liberal is a key member of that party internationally.

They say you are getting old when the policemen on the beat start to look young. Well I first met Dr Joseph Garcia many years ago and he was young and I wasn’t that old. Now I have entered “maturity” and Gibraltar’s Liberal Leader still looks and indeed is young. However looks can be deceiving and despite his youth over the years he has made a mark not only for his party within the Liberal International organisation but also amongst fellow Lib Dems in the UK.

I asked the Lib Dem Euro MP for Gibraltar, Graham Watson, for his estimation of the Rock’s Liberal leader. He told me: “Joseph is well known locally for his work for Liberalism in Gibraltar; but many on the Rock are unaware of his important contribution to wider Liberal efforts - in the UK Lib Dems, in the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and worldwide through the Liberal International.”

Indeed they are not. Not only has Dr Joseph steered what was a small Gibraltar party in to a strong coalition partnership with the GSLP but in so doing he has seen his personal standing and that of the Liberals rise considerably on the Rock’s political barometer. His name always charts amongst those naming who they would prefer as a chief minister. He has maintained his party’s identity and integrity yet worked in a close partnership with that wily old fox of a politician Joe Bossano. I am sure his success in Gibraltar is studied by thinking Lib Dems in the UK on how to enter and sustain a coalition without loosing your credibility or selling your soul.

At the next Gibraltar general election, whenever that may be, he will co-lead the GSLP – Liberal coalition in to battle with probably Fabian Picardo at his side. Yet it wouldn’t matter if it was Picardo or Bossano because whoever fights for the GSLP will have as their partner the best connected politician in Gibraltar.

I have no doubt Joe Bossano has a little red book but the names in it are probably Old Labour warriors like him. In Dr Joseph’s little black book are the names and numbers of the British Deputy Prime Minister, Lib Dem cabinet colleagues and the top Liberals world-wide.

I don’t know if the chief minister has a little contact book – all I’ve heard is that he’s a dab hand at throwing the telephone directory at people who incur his wrath. I am sure Simon Hughes isn’t in it as he went out of his way to meet as many people on his visit to Gibraltar, but the chief minister wasn’t one of them. I wonder why? I also suspect, I may be wrong, the chief minister doesn’t have the private number of David Cameron or come to that of the UK’s Foreign Secretary William Hague.

You can imagine the scene at Chez-Hague. The phone rings – Ffion get that for me will you – it’s who? – Peter? Peter who? – Caruana? – posh but foreign, he’s not Libyan is he? – Gibraltar – oh, Caruana, oh tell him I’m busy – very busy - I’m practicing judo with my male assistant!

(An edited version of the above appeared in Panorama on Monday March 7 2011)