BOSSINO VERSUS FEETHAM

So we know the runners and riders in the GSD Leadership Stakes and it’s a two horse race. Daniel Feetham says he is going to say little more as “this is an internal matter for the GSD”. He is right and he is wrong.

It will be the GSD executive that chooses the party leader: no argument there. However we can only presume that the chosen one will lead the GSD in to the next general election and will be the party’s candidate for Chief Minister. Hence who the party elects is of interest to us all.

I spoke on Tuesday to two people with very differing views on the Bossino candidacy. One believed Damon was merely putting his marker down for the future and hoping to secure the deputy leadership post. In that person’s view Feetham is a shoo-in.

The other view was very different. That person believes that Bossino is the candidate of the true GSD who wish to stop Feetham at all costs. No surprise in that thesis but I was surprised by the strength with which it was delivered.

I believe Daniel Feetham is the most interesting politician. I may make him the subject of my second book. Second you make ask? Yes my first belongs to another!

The Feetham family are socialist. Daniel Feetham was a member of New Labour and returned to Gibraltar intent on taking the GSLP crown when Joe Bossano stood aside. Joe wouldn’t budge so Danny stomped off to form the Labour Party. That fell flat on its face electorally and as Feetham is only in politics to be Chief Minister he made the ideological switch to the GSD where he finds himself close to the first of his targets: the party leadership. Whether he achieves that we will see in the coming weeks. If he does then the GSD will have a socialist leader with the other socialist members of the family waiting in the wings to take party positions. The attraction of Danny to the GSD is he is an experienced politician who can perhaps give the GSLP Liberals a run for their money. The problem for Feetham is if he fails. He has no desire to be deputy to anybody: not Caruana and certainly not Bossino which sounds too much like Bossano for his taste. I wouldn’t rule out another political incarnation for Feetham or he may just decide the game is over: for now.

Which of course leaves us with Bossino. I said in an article back in October that he could be shaping up to be the true GSD leader. As the party leader really has to be in parliament the traditional wing of the party had little other choice. There are two strong points for GSD members in electing Bossino – the first is he isn’t Danny Feetham and the second is he is not tarred by the Caruana administration brush. Against him is the fact he is new to frontline politics. However I doubt if he is a fool and he has three years as opposition leader to learn the ropes.

I agree with Bossino that a party leadership contest is always desirable. I am sure Fabian Picardo would have welcomed a challenge for the leadership of the GSLP. However since then he has passed the ultimate test – being elected by the people of Gibraltar as their Chief Minister.

Nor do leadership elections always turn out the way a party imagines. The current leader of the Lib Dems and the UK’s deputy prime minister is Nick Clegg. However had the 1,300 postal votes caught up in the 2007 Christmas post not been excluded but added to the count it would be Chris Huhne who would have led the party in to the last election as more Lib Dems voted for him. Currently Huhne is out of the cabinet as he awaits trial for perverting the cause of justice over a 2003 driving charge. He could yet return to the Cabinet or be sent to jail.

I have yet to hear who Peter Caruana favours to replace him. One has to remember that ahead of the last election he insists he backed Fabien Vinet to be one of the GSD candidates only for the party to vote him out. So may be having the former Supreme Leader’s hands placed upon you is best avoided at all costs – especially if they are not on your head but around your neck.

IF MADRID WON’T, PERHAPS LA LÍNEA CAN

We have just celebrated the 30 th anniversary of the re-opening of the frontier with Spain and fittingly on that day our Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, met with the mayor of La Línea, Gemma Araujo.

This is in line with the chief minister’s stated desire to have on-going discussions with the representatives of the border town. It is not clear just what was discussed on Friday other than Araujo raised the claim that Spanish workers were losing their jobs in a discriminatory manner which the chief minister effectively dealt with.

It always struck me that if there was to be a benefit from the Córdoba Accord it should be that the situation at the border crossing should be dragged from third world status to one fitting the frontier between EU member states.

I am sure Gibraltar desperately needed the telephone lines along with other deals under the accord to benefit our companies and institutions. However for Córdoba to have gained universal popularity it needed to give a tangible benefit to the people of Gibraltar and indeed those across the border too.

Sadly that opportunity was wasted and instead all we got was a Cervantes Institute and a Gin Palace of an air terminal which cost an arm and a leg. Gibraltarians were forced to pay for the former Supreme Leader’s vanity but received nothing in return.

The frontier is in the hands of the Guardia Civil and the Policía Nacional so is under the control of the Ministry of the Interior in Madrid. Our government has spoken of introducing more crossing points and having more lanes but if Spain won’t tango we can’t dance. Or can we?

I am sure there is a lot that can be done to improve the border than can be achieved municipally in La Línea. For instance does traffic have to stop every time a pedestrian or a person pushing a bike or riding a motorbike crosses the road? Surely some form of pedestrian access can be created to separate walkers from those on vehicles.

When there is a queue to enter the Rock there is a battle between those vehicles who line up, often for hours, whilst others force their way to the front by pushing in at the last roundabout. Sorry to say but Gibraltarians are amongst the guilty here. More often than not there is no barrier or police officer to stop them doing this.

If the last mayor of La Línea could devise ways of channelling the traffic so it had to pay tolls surely Araujo can find a way of making entering and leaving Gibraltar easier for all.

All this is done to an extent on the Gibraltar side where traffic is regulated so everybody takes their turn with cars and two-wheelers going into their own respective lanes. If the RGP can do it then so can the local police in La Línea.

Of course La Línea is bankrupt so hasn’t the cash to pay its police let alone anything else. However if our chief minister and the mayor are talking of co-operation here would be one place to start. The RGP could work with La Línea’s police to design systems for queuing: our road planning experts could help theirs look at the lane system across the border. If it means we co-fund police or officials to organise the queues it would be a good way to spend our cash. After all it is Gibraltarians, our workers and visitors to the Rock who are currently paying the price for this border fiasco. The same border fiasco is damaging our image, driving away tourists and causing endless frustration for all who have to come in and out. If Madrid can’t or won’t sort it, then perhaps with La Línea’s help we can.

PICARDO AND THE PIRATES

I know that in his youth our Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, flirted with the music scene so might I suggest to him that the name ‘Picardo and the Pirates’ has a certain ring to it. Readers with long memories will remember the successful 50s and 60s group ‘Johnny Kidd and the Pirates’. There is no rule that says you cannot be a chief minister and a pop star.

When news broke of the confrontation in Sevilla, where the Chief Minister was speaking at a lunch forum and was presented with the pirate flag, my mind went immediately to music and Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’. The former British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, was a keen devotee of Gilbert and Sullivan. I interviewed him at length in 1981 for WQXR – the classical music station of the New York Times. After reviewing his lengthy political life we talked of comic opera and his particular liking for the Pirates. The 1879 musical was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and is as popular now as then. Perhaps a performance could be arranged for Gibraltar’s Inces Hall.

Of course as a pirate Fabian Picardo is in good company. Sir Francis Drake is a national hero in Britain but is viewed as a notorious pirate in Spain. I guess you pay your pieces of eight and takes your choice.

In history pirates did operate out of Gibraltar but the real stronghold was further up the coast in Cádiz. To this day you can walk along the Callejón de las Piratas in Cádiz’s old town: they used to meet and trade their booty in the nearby Posada del Mesón in the calle Mesón.

No great surprise as the city and province was strategically placed to intercept vessels trading between Africa and the Americas and was a pirating hot spot especially in the 17 th and 18 th centuries. The corsair pirate ships used the Cádiz coast as a refuge and also as a centre for their operations.

Although we have a set image of the pirates of old those who operated out of Cádiz had a close relationship with Spanish aristocrats and senior members of the military. I guess the Partido Popular hierarchy and Guardia Civil of today!

The first famous pirate spoken of in Cádiz was Fernando de Sahandra who in the 15 th century made a healthy living by targeting Berber trading ships. He disregarded the protocols of his day and even sunk a Sevilla ship that was owned by the Reyes Católicos.

Around the same time Pedro Fernández Cabrón took advantage of the conflict between Ponce de León and the Guzmans to rob them both. Learning that Fernando de Aragón did not look kindly on his pirating activities he converted to extreme Christianity and was pardoned by the Reyes Católicos in 1478 because of his contribution to the faith.

Then the were the Galindes brothers, Pero and Diego, who with a crew including local fishermen assaulted a Breton vessel owned by John Ropel and bagged a valuable booty of 600,000 maravedíes, a unit of Spanish currency used up to the 19 th century. Ropel protested to the Marqués de Cádiz but as the nobleman wished to keep on the good side of the local people he told him in future to strengthen the defences of his ships and dismissed his complaint.

The next time our chief minister meets a Spaniard waving a pirate flag he can talk authoritatively of Cádiz’s Antón Bernalt, Jerónimo Marrufo and Jerónimo de Cubas who were deemed as legal pirates. They achieved this status because when they sent their corsairs to raid a wealthy merchant ship they had already agreed with the Spanish authorities what percentage would be paid over to the public coffers. How very Partido Popular!

SHOULD CARUANA BE PROSECUTED

AND WHY DIDN’T THE RGP ENFORCE THE LAW?

My article today is not political but legal. It begs two questions: should the former Chief Minister Peter Caruana be prosecuted for breaking the 1991 Nature Protection Act? And, why didn’t the Royal Gibraltar Police enforce that law from 1997 until the present GSLP Liberal Government was elected to office last November?

Before 1991 Gibraltar was in a state of catch-up with the environmental legislation in the UK and wider Europe. However that year the GSLP Government presented the Nature Protection Act before the Rock’s parliament. It was then duly passed in to law and has been the law of Gibraltar ever since.

With regards to fishing the law specifically prohibits the use of seine and gill nets in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. Seabed raking and the use of artificial lights for attracting fish are also illegal under the aforementioned Act.  These methods, including drift nets as well as long lines, are used by Spanish fishermen in our waters.

Between 1991 and 1997 the Act was enforced by the Royal Gibraltar Police.  While some fishing occurred, this was without sanction and the Police effected arrests and prosecutions on a number of occasions. It was following such an arrest, a campaign was started by Spanish fishermen to press the Gibraltar Government to allow them to fish.  In 1999, after the fishermen blockaded the Gibraltar frontier, a ‘Joint Understanding’ was accepted by the fishing federations of the border town of La Línea as well as Algeciras across the bay and the then Chief Minister Peter Caruana. It allowed Spanish fishing vessels to fish in Gibraltar’s waters using methods illegal under the Nature Protection Act 1991.

However this document, if that is what it was, was illegal because it contravened the 1991 Nature Protection Act. It would have been very simply for Caruana to have legalised what he had agreed with the fishermen. As he assures us he had them biting out of his hand all he had to do was to tell them to have patience whilst he took an amendment to the 1991 Nature Protection Act to the then House of Assembly for approval. Once that process had been done the accord would have become part of Gibraltar’s law.

Yet Caruana failed to do that. Either he decided to ignore the House out of shere arrogance or rather than the fishermen eating out of his hand like tame Koi Carp they had held him over a fish barrel. Hence he knew that revealing the terms of the agreement would have caused outrage in Gibraltar and maybe against that scenario he could not count on the support of his GSD team. Who knows? Well Caruana does!

The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has made it clear to all who will listen that neither he nor his government have any power over the actions of the RGP. Indeed our Minister for the Environment, Dr John Cortes, reinforced that stance in a recent interview with me for the London Progressive Journal on the environmental implications of the current situation.

That being the case the Royal Gibraltar Police also have questions to answer. I am fully aware that the front line officers bravely enforced the Act before 1997 and have been so doing again in recent weeks. Yet what of the Commissioner? Why did he decide not to enforce the law of Gibraltar between 1998 and the former Chief Minister Peter Caruana leaving office? Was he ordered not to do so by Caruana who has no control of the force? Or was he ordered not to do so by the Convent in contravention of the law passed by Gibraltar’s parliament. We need to know.

If I park my car illegally in Gibraltar it is towed away and I am fined according to the law. If I walk down Main Street and punch a passerby on the nose I will be arrested by the RGP and brought to trial. If I walk in to a bank and attempt to rob it I will be bundled away in a police car and find myself before a judge: if found guilty I am sent to jail.

So finally to Peter Caruana himself. We are all equal in the eyes of the law so if we break the laws of Gibraltar it is logical we end up in court. As the former Chief Minister seemingly broke the law of Gibraltar by reaching an accord with the Spanish fishermen, which he then imposed over the 1991 Nature Protection Act that was and still is the law of Gibraltar, what sanction will be imposed?

As I said at the start of this article this is not a political matter it is a legal one. In theory as Peter Caruana appears to have broken the law of Gibraltar as well as possibly influencing others not to enforce the law of Gibraltar then this is a matter that should be heard and ruled on in the courts of Gibraltar. Unless of course there is one law for the hoi polloi and another for former Chief Ministers.

GLOVES OFF: TIME TO GO TO COURT

Over the years I have spoken to many local politicians and all have been of the opinion that if Gibraltar went to court to challenge the validity in this modern age of the Treaty of Utrecht the government would win and it would be placed in the judicial waste bin.

I include in that number Daniel Feetham who was then leader of the Labour Party. I would not hold anybody to their views from a past life but as he will soon no doubt be the leader of the GSD his stance is important. However I have read or heard nothing to suggest he doesn’t still hold that view.

Given that the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, the deputy leader of the GSD, Daniel Feetham, and the leader of the PDP, Keith Azopardi, are all lawyers their collective agreement on this issue is important. It is not only important to win the legal battle but also the fight for public opinion. Hence Gibraltar needs to be united and 100 per cent behind this cause.

I accept there are lawyers and there are lawyers hence Messers Picardo, Feetham and Azopardi may well not be the ones to stand up in court and argue the case on an ancient treaty and constitutional matters. None-the-less Gibraltar and the world are not short of lawyers and perhaps Michael Llamas QC might be such a legal eagle.

In a recent Government statement on the fishing dispute Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said “I am the fifth Chief Minister of Gibraltar to challenge Spain to litigation on the issue of the territorial waters around Gibraltar. Instead of accepting our successive challenges to resolve matters in an International Court, some elements in Spain continue to risk the lives of those at sea by seeking to advance its position in the waters around Gibraltar.”

Well my question as a lay man is if five Chief Ministers were confident enough to take the matter before a court why haven’t we called Spain’s bluff before now and done just that?

Whilst the waters and air space issues are the ones the court in such circumstances would be required to rule on I believe it should be the whole issue of the Treaty of Utrecht that should be up for judicial grabs.

Again as a lay man I can see no danger for Gibraltar. If we lose the case then the Treaty of Utrecht is upheld and as long as Gibraltar remains British, by the will of the Gibraltarian people, then the status quo stays.

However if the court rules that Gibraltar is entitled under international law to its own air space and waters, as provided for in the 1958 Geneva Convention to which Spain is a signatory, then it’s certainly game, set to us. If the court also rules the Treaty of Utrecht is as dead as the Dodo then you can add match over too.

In the 1967 referendum 99.19 per cent of Gibraltarians voted to reject any move to transfer them to Spanish sovereignty. In 2002 almost the same number, 98.48 per cent, rejected the attempts by Tony Blair and Jack Straw to bounce Gibraltar in to a joint sovereignty deal with Spain. The people of Gibraltar have been staunch in their rejection of Spain and surely it is now time to take the matter to court to cement in judicial stone the death of the Treaty of Utrecht and the right of the people of the Rock to self determine their own futures.

Of course Spain would oppose taking the case to court: but so too would any land grabber threatened with legal action. Britain would also oppose it as there is nothing the Foreign Office and the establishment likes less than change. Certainly it would be happy for joint sovereignty to be imposed but as an extension of the Treaty. However take away the Treaty of Utrecht and you remove the plank on which London – Madrid relations have been founded on for over 300 years. The brolly brigade would be in uncharted territory whilst Gibraltar would have a legally enforced map of its seas and air space. Do it I say!

THE CENTRE LEFT REVIVAL: IT STARTED HERE

Social Europe: is it worth fighting for? That was the theme of the Fabian Society conference held in London in February. In her keynote speech Labour’s Shadow Europe Minister Emma Reynolds stated: “The presidential election in France in May presents a great opportunity for Francois Hollande to spark a revival of the centre left in Europe. Only then will social democrats have the chance to start shaping the debate about Social Europe and return Europe back to growth and prosperity.”

Well the two rounds of the French Presidential election have come and gone and indeed Hollande has emerged triumphant. It is understandable that because of the stature of the French Presidency this victory is seen as the great beacon of revival those on the progressive left have been seeking. However in truth the revival started here in Gibraltar in December and has since taken in Andalucía and now France.

In December the voters of Gibraltar returned a GSLP led coalition with the Liberals, the sort of progressive alliance many in the British Labour Party have only dreamed of. Ousted was a centre right administration that had ruled Gibraltar for nearly 16 years. I use the term ruled deliberately because the GSD didn’t govern for the people but ruled for its elite.

In came Fabian Picardo as Chief Minister, a then 39-year-old winning at the first time of asking: a feat never achieved before in Gibraltar politics. It would be a mistake to believe that the victory of the GSLP only reverberated around the streets of the Rock. It also raised cheers amongst the embattled Labour family in the UK.

When I met with Labour Party officials at the then HQ in Victoria Street close to Parliament in January and February they delighted in telling me of the response generated when they took the news of the GSLP victory to National Executive and other top committee meetings. It was not just greeted with murmurings of approval but cheers and clapping. The GSLP is a sister party of Labour but is also ‘de la familia’: it brought fresh hope to Miliband and his team.

After the drubbing PSOE received in Spain last May at the local and regional elections and then again in November at the general election when a triumphant Rajoy and his arrogant PP cohorts took power, who, yes who would have thought the socialists would have held on to Andalucía in March’s election against all the odds.

The left alliance of PSOE and the Izquierda Unida won 59 seats against the PP’s 50 as the centre right party’s lead in the polls collapse after the briefest honeymoon in political history. So what started in Gibraltar in December crossed into Andalucía in March and in May has moved on to France. The centre left, which I have been arguing all along in the Morning Star and London Progressive Journal never went away, is back and on the march.

In France on Sunday Francois Hollande was elected the next president of France with just under 52 per cent of the vote. He is the first socialist president since Francois Mitterrand was elected in 1995. Nicolas Sarkozy was the first incumbent president not to establish a lead after the first round of voting and also the first since 1981 not to secure a second term.

In his victory speech Hollande said he was “proud to have been capable of giving people hope again” and will honour his pledge to refocus EU efforts away from austerity and on to growth. “Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option.” Those will be the headlines in the coming days – but don’t forget this much talked about socialist revival started here in Gibraltar.

HOMAGE TO THOSE WHO DIE IN ACCIDENTS AT WORK

One of the first acts of Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, on being elected to office last December, was to establish Workers Memorial Day to be commemorated just before May Day. April 28 was the first homage to those who died in work place accidents and as the Chief Minister’s speech reveals he had a very personal reason for marking this day.

Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo’s Address on Workers Memorial Day, 28th April 2012

On 11th Nov 1938 32 year old Henry Massetti went to work as normal.

He was assigned to a building site in the area of the Alameda red sands. He was excavating near a wall that collapsed on him.

Having survived the collapse of the wall by the 14th November he was dead; dying an agonising death from respiratory failure.

Henry Massetti left a widow with three children and a fourth child unborn in his wife's belly.

The eldest daughter was my mother.

The inquest into the death of my grandfather in 1938 records a verdict of death by misadventure.

Let me now read you the intro to a piece in the Gibraltar Chronical in 2009 by Brian Reyes:

"PRODUCTIVITY ‘PUT AHEAD OF SAFETY’ INQUEST TOLD

Workers at the Waterport Terrace construction site put productivity before health and safety, an inquest into a fatal accident was told yesterday. John Moreno, the Gibraltar Government’s principal health and safety inspector, said he had reached that conclusion as a result of an investigation following the accident at the site in 2007.

“If works had to be done, they would do it regardless of health and safety,” Mr Moreno said. “Production came first and the rest behind.”
Mr Moreno was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Jose Luis Gomez Garcia, a Spanish worker employed by Brues y Fernandez [Brues], the main contractor at the Waterport Terrace site  Sr Gomez fell to his death from a partly-finished second floor balcony after a makeshift guardrail gave way, the inquest heard.

 The guardrail was made from timber recycled from wood pallets used to transport building materials to the site.

 It had been placed across a gap at the side of the balcony as a safety measure, secured at one end with a masonry nail and at the other with a wedge.

Similar barriers were in place elsewhere but there was no evidence that they had been certified as safe by a competent person.

In evidence, Mr Moreno said the setup was far from adequate and that purpose-built, metal barriers should have been installed.”

Only last year, in an incident that rocked the whole of our Nation, an explosion at North Mole resulted in the death of a working man With 70 degree burns.

As a result of that incident we have celebrated the bravery of police officer Jared McIntosh.

So we must also remember the sacrifice of Pedro Zambrano Lopez who dies last year aged 40, my age today, in that explosion.

His was believe it or not the second death by fire on the Western Arm in 20 years.

Mr David Pickup died in a fire at the refuelling depot on North Mole.

We also cannot forget those who died in the Bedenham incident and in the explosion in Tangier that resulted in the loss of lives of GSP officers who we remembered in another plaque here earlier this year. Yet they are not the only ones. Too many too mention or list have died at work, trying to earn an honest living.

From 1938 to 2007 to 2011

Wherever workers are from, nationals, Spanish cross frontier workers, Moroccan workers or detached workers from form eastern european states - the health and safety of each individual worker matters.

Even in offices there are threats to health and safety.

Not just on building sites and other sites of manual labour.

Electricity, constant staring at screens, humidity - all these things are also silent dangers that we must look out for today.

Wherever danger lurks, we must be ready to ensure it is checked and countered to protect the workforce.

We may never be able to deal with every lurking danger but we care and we as a community are sending out a message with this holiday that we will not tolerate any corners being cut any shortcomings with the health of our workers.

Because that is how we remember the dead and protect and fight for the living.

I want to thank Gilbert McCarthy public ally for the work he has done to raise the profile of this day as a distinct occasion to the 1st of May and also Christian Duo who picked up the mantle from Gilbert.

I make no apology for how personally I feel the need to establish this day in our national calendar.

I now ask you to observe a minutes silence after the excellent Scout band plays in my unveiling of the plaque to commemorate those who we remember today.

NO BLOOD ON THE CARPET BUT JUSTICE

Word has reached me that some government supporters are not happy with the way it is handling matters. Not satisfied that a socialist-led administration is back at the helm after nearly 16 years; that it is opening up the workings of government for all to see or honouring its election pledges, they are complaining because there is no GSD blood on the carpet. If they were hoping for a night (and perhaps day) of the long knives they are certainly disappointed.

Not that I am unsympathetic to their wishes: but do not confuse sympathy with agreement. Over the last year I have heard of numerous cases of injustice meted out to local residents. Some of these are where the system has let them down or is due to the lack of a proper response from a government department or agency. However the ones that have truly shocked me are where people have been singled out because of their political allegiance and punished by the withholding of services or help that were their due by law. There are those that have been persecuted in the workplace. They were examples of a government’s vindictiveness and I certainly have never seen the like in Britain. I have seen such cases, where people truly lived in fear of their government, but they were in the townships of apartheid South Africa.

So when these people who were treated as an underclass by the previous government find their party in power it is a natural human trait to want revenge. Bloody revenge is not on the agenda but justice is.

When the GSLP elected Fabian Picardo as their leader he pulled no punches or pulled no wool over anybody’s eyes when he declared if elected to government he would lead an administration that dealt fairly with everybody regardless of their political persuasion.

When Gibraltar elected Fabian Picardo as chief minister he had made it clear in his election addresses that he would be fair and open – he even told the then chief minister that he could still inaugurate the new air terminal when it was finally completed if he wasn’t in power.

However one should not believe that Picardo or the administration he leads is a soft touch. One should not confuse fairness with weakness. As my grandmother used to say: there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The government’s first priority is to govern and that is the business the new team of GSLP and Liberal ministers are fully engaged in. To deal with the present and future is their main obligation but the past will not be ignored because it impacts on the others.

Much went on in the GSD mandate that is being investigated. Mismanagement there certainly was: every time a Gibraltarian passes their airport they have standing before them an empty terminal which is a monument to the political and personal vanity of one man.

Yet forensic audits and legal investigations are also underway in to the many other disasters and abuses of the Caruana mandates. These things take time; the search by financial and legal experts will be exhausting. As the new government has stated plainly: the GSD will be fully held to account for its years in power. Some of that fallout will be political. However do not be surprised if these investigations end up in the civil or criminal courts. There is no blood on the carpet, nor will there be, but justice there will be as surely as night follows day. So no night of the long knives but certainly the full light of day will shine on the shenanigans of the GSD era.

SO WHO IS LYING MR CARUANA?

It was two days before the Gibraltar General Election that I broke the story in Panorama that the UK’s former Europe Minister Peter Hain was going to tell all about the joint sovereignty debacle with Peter Caruana that occurred over 2001 and 2002. His book ‘Outside In’ had been embargoed by the Foreign office because it was felt the revelations that are now out in the open could affect the result of our election.

On the day that Panorama published the story I was named in a Government press release as a GSLP activist who had penned an article of lies. This is not the first time I had crossed swords with Peter Caruana on this issue.

In Panorama on June 22 of last year I penned an article: “Whispers of deals done or deals in the offing”. In it I wrote referring to 2001 and 2002: “I am equally sure that I was not the only journalist to receive phone calls or messages from UK sources suggesting the chief minister had led London and Madrid to believe he could deliver a joint sovereignty deal...and then gone back on his word. Mischief or the truth? I have no idea. However as far as I am aware Caruana has never explained to the people of Gibraltar his apparent conversion on the road to Madrid.”

During his closing budget speech in July the chief minister chose to name me in the House and to quote, incorrectly, from what I had written. He told Parliament that I had accused the then GSD government of being prepared to do a deal on joint sovereignty. Of course I had written no such thing and the GSD did not even feature in my article: only he did.

On December 6 I wrote: “In September 2004 the Gibraltar Chronicle reported on Fabian Picardo attending the Labour Party Conference in Brighton. There he had a meeting with Peter Hain and they naturally discussed the Joint Sovereignty process of 2001 – 2002. Fabian Picardo questioned Hain: “Let me ask you this, what was the attitude of the Chief Minister when he welcomed you to Gibraltar in September 2001 and welcomed the re-launch of the Brussels Process?”

“Peter Hain replied: “He led us to believe he would be a willing partner in the talks – and then he pulled back.”

That is what it is believed Hain’s book will now confirm. As it so happened I was close at hand when Picardo met Hain at this year’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool and the former Europe Minister repeated the same claim.”

Well despite all the previous denials from the former Europe Minister, the Foreign Office and Caruana that is what Hain is now claiming and both he and the former chief minister can battle it out over who is telling the truth.

On Thursday 10 November I was party to a telephone conversation with the Foreign Office in London. The message back was that Hain couldn’t speak on the matters relating to 2001 and 2002 because they were to be published in his book ‘Outside In’ and for now it was the subject of a Foreign Office and Cabinet Office embargo.

The message went on: “If the GSLP win the general election then the people of Gibraltar will be very happy. If Caruana stays in power then they will be very angry indeed.” On the basis of that conversation I went to London and had conversations with Labour HQ and leading Labour politicians through whom I was able to ascertain that the embargo did exist and the basis of what Hain would say. You read that here on December 6.

What is quite clear is that Fabian Picardo was not lying over the conversation he had with Peter Hain at the Labour Party Conference at Brighton in 2004. Nor was Fabian Picardo lying over his encounter with Peter Hain at last year’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool at which I was present. Nor was I lying in my articles here on June 22 or December 6. So who is lying Mr Caruana?

(Fabian Picardo meets Peter Hain at 2011 Labour Party Conference).

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.

FABIAN PICARDO: THE LIVERPOOL INTERVIEW

Since Sunday the Leader of the Opposition and GSLP, Fabian Picardo, has been at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. I caught up with him on Tuesday evening as his stay drew to a close and took the opportunity to ask him about his impressions and whether his objectives had been fulfilled.

David Eade: How deep are the traditional links between the GSLP and Labour Party in the UK?

Fabian Picardo: Very deep indeed and also warm and positive with the real Labour Party, if I may call it that.  The GSLP constitution is modelled on the constitution of the Labour Party and we hold ourselves to account annual at our own party AGM which is a mini-conference. 

David Eade: This is the first time you have attended the Labour Party Conference as leader of the GSLP. What were your objectives and expectations on arrival?

Fabian Picardo: Well to do two things.  The first is to ensure that I keep up the excellent work Joe has done in establishing and maintaining GSLP links not just with front bench spokespersons but also with rank and file members.  The second is to ensure that the wider Gibraltar agenda remains clear to those who are in official positions and that they understand what Gibraltar wants, needs and expects.

David Eade: Have those objectives been fulfilled and were your expectations met?

Fabian Picardo: Very much so.  The international liaison officers this year were well known to us (as we had campaigned together for Labour in European Parliamentary Elections). That meant we were working with close friends.  I was therefore able to meet with Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Party and with Douglas Alexander, who is Shadow Foreign Secretary, amongst others.  They were not at the Gibraltar Government reception, so being able to meet with them on Gibraltar issues was important.

David Eade: What was your single most important achievement at the conference?

Fabian Picardo: Clearly it was to keep the Gibraltar issue alive in minds of the people I met and that includes the Leader of the Party, something which cannot be underestimated.  Mr Miliband is the Leader of the Opposition and it is important that we constantly keep reminding him of the relevant Gibraltar issues.

David Eade: You met the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, talked to him about Gibraltar and heard his conference speech in the area reserved for international party leaders – what were your impressions of him and his leadership?

Fabian Picardo: I think Ed did an excellent job of putting across a message of social justice.  He expressed it in terms of "a new bargain", a little like the "new deal" which New Labour successfully did with young people in the late nineties.  I was impressed by his determination and by the themes he picked out in his speech.  I was also impressed by the fact that he remains a very approachable and down to earth personality despite his position at the head of the Labour Party in Britain and the 24 hour media onslaught he is under.  There is a lesson there for some here who see themselves as worthy of decorum and reverence.

David Eade: : What can the Labour Party teach the GSLP and the GSLP the Labour Party?

Fabian Picardo: Well the Labour Party teaches us that internal democracy is essential if you are going to have real political longevity.  That is the only way to ensure the members know the party is truly theirs and why they continue to support it through thick and thin.  We can teach Labour a thing or two about organisation, and I spent some time with Andy Burnham talking about our membership record computerisation, regular contact with members and the use of social media.  They were very interested in some of our data and the ideas we are rolling out in this campaign.

David Eade: Finally, since Tony Blair tried to bounce Gibraltar into joint sovereignty with Spain these have been difficult times for Labour’s relations with the people of the Rock, especially when it comes to the European elections. Do you have hopes that rift can be mended in the near future?

Fabian Picardo: I don't believe it was just Tony Blair who was the architect of Joint Sovereignty.  As ever with Blair he was the front man exquisitely executing the manoeuvres.  What I have tried to do, and I started doing this with Joe from my first attendance at the Conference, is tell all the relevant rank and file members, officers and front bench spokespersons that they have to rebuild the trust they enjoyed in Gibraltar.  I am determined that we should get to the bottom of what gave Labour ministers the idea that the hair-brained concept of Joint Sovereignty might get off the ground. Perhaps when we do that, we will see that the blame does not lie, or at least does not only lie, at Labour’s door. 

COULD GIBRALTAR GO UP IN FLAMES

As a Londoner born and bred who knows almost every nook and cranny of the Old Smoke it caused me much sadness, pain, shame and extreme anger to witness the riots of recent days. What has surprised me is that being 1,000 miles from home the events seem to be followed as much by Gibraltarians on giant TV screens and talked about in huddled conversations as by Brits themselves.

I have lived through riots before in Battersea when nearby Brixton went up in flames in the 1980s. However the photographs of buildings engulfed in an inferno and the burnt out skeletons are purely from the days of the blitz. I am not old enough to remember the war years but my grandparents and parents lived through the nightly bombing raids so it is part of my historic memory to which I will return later. When I walked about as a child the blackened ruins were all around me as stark memorials.

Make no mistake what is going on in London is pure criminality and has nothing to do with social exclusion or any of the other buzz words used by politicians and social workers to attempt to explain away the indefensible. On Thursday the British Parliament met to discuss this national tragedy. Rightly Labour Leader Ed Miliband condemned the mindless violence but there are those in his ranks, such as Ken Livingstone, who will try to portray it as a symptom of the coalition’s programme of cuts. Livingstone is an idiot who should spend more time with his newts!

So could such mayhem, senseless violence and looting be visited upon Gibraltar? My strong hunch is no, except in one scenario which I will return to later. However Gibraltar has a violence problem and whether the government wants to admit it or not it is there and needs to be tackled.

You may have followed the claims and counterclaims in PANORAMA over the Bayside School situation. If so I will leave it to you to decide which side is correct. However violence does exist in Gibraltar’s schools, whether it occurs in a set time frame is neither here nor there. In an email to PANORAMA the Royal Gibraltar Police stated: “...In the past year starting as from April 2010, six incidents of assault at Bayside Comprehensive School that have been reported to police, there has been one incident at Westside School also of assault.”

The Minister of Justice has been stabbed in broad daylight whilst walking through the streets with his children. There are also serious drunken assaults on Gibraltar’s streets at night. It was only weeks ago that the Leader of the Opposition, Fabian Picardo, was attacked with a friend as they returned to their car after dining out. A number of other attacks occurred the same night. I happen to know the man with Picardo has a disability which meant the GSLP leader not only had to defend himself but protect his friend too. Curiously the chief minister never contacted Fabian Picardo to express his concern over the attack, a basic human response, but instead bizarrely issued a press release to assure the public his “family” had nothing to do with it.

I happened to chat to a local lad yesterday, not a politico or a university student but a regular youth. First he told me there was indeed the fear of violence at local schools and he had witnessed it himself. I prefer to believe him than a No.6 press release. Then as we watched the London riots on Sky News he told me his parents had told him of similar violence in Gibraltar.

Of course what he was referring to was the “Palomos” disturbances of 1968 largely instigated because of the actions of a group of six, including two Triay’s, one being the father-in-law of the current chief minister. On April 6 of that year around 1,000 angry Gibraltarians rioted and attacked their properties with the Governor Sir Gerald Lathbury calling out troops in support of the police who had lost control.

The youth, in whose historic memory those events are enshrined just like the blitz are in mine, laughed that Peter Caruana with his Andorra solution was trying to recreate the same scenario as Triay and “Los Palomos”. I don’t believe Gibraltar will suffer a summer of discontent but equally I do not believe the majority of Gibraltarians will accept joint sovereignty with knobs on as in the Andorra model. If Caruana tries to impose it, he could well feel the political heat.