CLARE WANTS TO BE ONE OF YOUR MEPS

Normally when reporting on a Labour Party Conference once the Government of Gibraltar reception has passed you are confined to UK issues. This year is different because next May, Gibraltar in common with the rest of Europe, goes to the polls to elect our new MEPs.

Gibraltar will be represented by six in the constituency it shares with the South West of England. Curiously three of the Labour candidates seeking your votes already have links to the Rock.

Number one on the list and hence the most likely to be elected is Clare Moody. We will return to her in a moment but she is a member of the Unite the Union and campaigned in Gibraltar at a previous Euro election as a candidate. Second on the list is Glyn Ford who was our Labour MEP until the last election when the number of seats was reduced from seven to six. At number four is Hadleigh Roberts who led Labour’s criticism against Peter Hain when the Labour MP took advantage of the border blockade by Spain this summer to press home his long discredited joint sovereignty beliefs.

As it happens all three were at the Government of Gibraltar’s reception on Sunday night and Clare Moody spoke alongside our Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and the Shadow Minister for Europe, Emma Reynolds.

In the South West and Gibraltar seat Clare Moody, a Unite political officer and former aide to Gordon Brown, topped the regional list of candidates in the poll amongst activists. She is backed by six separate unions but it was still a surprise she came ahead of Glyn Ford, a popular Labour figure who was the MEP for a decade.

Clare has stated that it is vital that the candidate at the top of the list for 2014 is someone who can win for Labour in that election and who can then deliver for the South West and Gibraltar afterwards. She believes she is that person.

Small in stature but full of vitality and charisma Clare is on the campaign trail already. She said:  “Our region has a huge amount to offer and a huge amount to gain from the European Union.  However, the people of the South West and Gibraltar are currently represented by UKIP MEPs, who apparently spend their time sleeping through parliamentary business and Tory MEPs, who are marginalised in the parliament because they don’t belong to a mainstream parliamentary grouping.

Speaking at our Government’s reception Clare made it clear that not only did she want to be elected for Gibraltar but pledged that she would be a strong defender of and advocate for Gibraltar. She was scathing about the recent Partido Popular Government’s campaign against Gibraltarians and suggested that with Madrid mired in an economic and corruption crises Rajoy and Margallo should keep their noses out of our business. Gibraltarians have the right to exist independent of Spain and that right must be respected.

Over the coming months Gibraltarians will have their own chance to make up their minds about Clare Moody because she will shortly be heading this way. Expect to meet her on a doorstep on street near you.

GIBRALTARIANS RIGHT TO VOTE IN UK’S IN-OUT EU REFERENDUM

My article centres on events being played out in a dusty committee room of the House of Commons. A battle is underway to ensure Gibraltarians are allowed to vote in the Conservative’s EU In-Out Referendum should the Tories be returned to power at the next UK election.

Gibraltar has been a member of the EU since January 1 1973 by virtue of Britain’s membership. However although Gibraltarians are full European citizens we were denied a vote in the European Elections until the 2004 poll. Gibraltarian’s will well know this followed a ten-year legal fight which culminated with the European Court ruling that as European Citizens we had the fundamental right to vote in the Euro elections. The UK then added Gibraltar to the South West England Constituency where it sits today.

A cynic may say there are two facts that may colour the Conservative Party’s seeming reluctance to include Gibraltar in its EU In-Out referendum. The first is that in the 2009 European Elections Gibraltar was the only area amongst all the UK Constituencies where the vote for Labour increased.

The second is that Gibraltar is very pro-Europe and indeed the UK’s withdrawal from the EU would be politically and economically disastrous for us. Hence if an In – Out Referendum is held in 2017 it is likely that Gibraltarians will vote massively to continue EU membership. True Gibraltar only has around 20,000 votes but in a tight election that total could help swing the election in favour of staying in the EU.

The whole concept of the 2017 referendum is a bizarre piece of legislation. It is not the Conservative – Lib Dem Government that is proposing it but it comes in the form of a Tory private member’s bill. It would only be enacted if a Conservative Government was returned. It has little to do with the EU but rather is a tactic to fend off UKIP at the next General Election and to keep Tory Euro-sceptics onside.

In off the record chats with Gibraltar Government officials I have been told that the UK has given the impression that Gibraltarians would be allowed to vote in the referendum. However there is nothing in writing and the current bill being discussed in Committee at the House of Commons, the Conservative Private Member’s Bill, does not allow for Gibraltarians to vote.

The Conservative Minister for Europe David Lidington had the chance to clear up the matter last week when he addressed the committee stage of the Bill. He said that regardless of whether or not Gibraltar is included in the In-Out referendum on the EU, which has yet to be determined, the UK should consult the Government of Gibraltar to fully understand its views as Gibraltarians would be affected by the decision either way.

Indeed they would Mr Lidington but asking the Gibraltar Government its views is a far cry from allowing Gibraltarians, as British and European citizens, to vote and is simply not acceptable. The suspicion that the Tories intend to deny Gibraltarians the vote is strengthened by the fact that Lidington did not take the opportunity when he had it to state categorically that we would be allowed to participate which would have cleared up all doubt.

Instead it has been left to Lidington’s shadow, Labour Europe Minister Emma Reynolds and her team to fight Gibraltar’s corner. Reynolds is worried that the bill as currently drafted fails to appreciate the particular and unique legal and constitutional position of Gibraltar as both a self governing British Overseas Territory and as part of the European Union.

As the Bill is currently drafted, the entitlement to vote in the proposed referendum will be restricted to “persons who, on the date of the referendum, would be entitled to vote as electors at a parliamentary election in any constituency.”

Whilst Gibraltarians are entitled to vote in European Parliamentary elections as part of the South West England Constituency we are self governing and not represented in the UK’s Parliament. The people of Gibraltar would therefore not be able to vote on whether to remain or leave the European Union should a referendum take place. There is also the prospect of Gibraltar having to leave the European Union, alongside the UK, without its people having had a say. Labour has proposed two key amendments: the first to ensure that Gibraltarians as British citizens are included and the second that Gibraltar’s result is declared separately. Will the Tories take note? No sign so far!

For Gibraltar this is a two-fold issue. Gibraltarians, as European Citizens, must be allowed to vote on their future in Europe. Withdrawal would have important negative economic implications for Gibraltar.

Gibraltar’s successful business model has taken the best part of the past forty years to develop as Gibraltarians have matured into their role in Europe. In an address to the Fabian Society in London in April Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, stated: “Our success in tourism, bunkering, telecoms, financial services and gaming as well as the many other sectors of our economic activity depends on our membership of the EU giving us unimpeded access to the Single Market in services and free movement of people and capital.” He added: “Now would be the wrong to time to change one of the few successful economic models in Southern Europe.”

The prospect of Gibraltar’s economy being destroyed by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, via a referendum in which Gibraltarians as British and European Citizens had no say, would be disastrous for Gibraltar and disastrous for our concept of democracy. It is the duty of the Conservative-led Government and the Conservative Party to ensure that does not happen.

HAIN IS A PAIN

The UK’s former Europe Minister, Peter Hain, may be a pain to Gibraltarians but I assure you he is no more than that. To pretend he is just boosts his inflated ego which is only matched by his ‘perma-tan’ in intensity.

Hain and I are of an age. If you asked the man or woman on the Clapham Omnibus who he was you would probably get differing answers. People of my generation would probably link him with digging up cricket pitches as part of the anti-apartheid campaign. Others might know him for having been forced to resign in 2008 over 100,000 pounds in unrecorded donations to his deputy leadership campaign. He was the first resignation from Gordon Brown’s government and is today no longer of any importance in the Labour Party. In Wales people might remember the Kenya born MP as being their Welsh Secretary and he still is the MP for Neath. The majority will just shrug their shoulders and say “who?”

Of course the reaction to Hain in Gibraltar is very different. As Europe Minister he was the public face of the Blair – Aznar policy to bounce Gibraltar in to a joint sovereignty deal with Spain in 2001. One of his profiles gives him the accolade of being “one of the most unpopular politicians ever to visit Gibraltar.” He remains so to this day.

Yet the fact was it wasn’t a Hain policy but part of the wider deals between Blair and Aznar which involved the Iraq War. Hain might like to claim credit but he was just the bag carrier: It was Blair and his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw who bossed the UK’s foreign affairs; Hain who was never an effective minister didn't get a look in.

Ironically Hain might be looking at us right now as he tops up his perma-tan at his Estepona home. He boasted in his autobiography how his wife is almost mistaken for being Spanish, wishful thinking perhaps.

So it should be no surprise to anyone that Hain should pop up on the BBC Radio Four Today programme on Tuesday to still peddle the Blair – Aznar policy of joint sovereignty. Needless to say he couldn’t resist insulting our politicians and indeed the Gibraltarian people in the process.

Hain had his couple of minutes of belated fame but caused a backlash in the process. Today’s Labour Party in many ways wishes Blair had never happened. I read a profile in the Evening Standard (or whatever it’s called now) of the Labour candidates who hope to succeed Glenda Jackson as the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn. Asked which Labour policy they most regretted all without exception stated the Iraq War – Blair’s War.

Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, and his Europe Minister, Emma Reynolds, have both spoken out in the past to stress their party’s commitment to Gibraltar on the same basis as the present Conservative – Lib Dem Government. Gibraltar would be as secure under a Labour administration as it is now. The person who is out of step with reality is Hain.

After Hain’s remarks on Tuesday he earned a rebuke from Hadleigh Roberts who is one of the Labour candidates in the SW England and Gibraltar six-seater constituency to be contested next May. Curiously I first met Hadleigh at last year’s Labour Party Conference and featured him in Panorama as a pro-European socialist, one to watch for the future. It never occurred to me at the time that one day he could be one of our Euro MPs.

On the Hain blast from the past Hadleigh had this to say: ‘The Labour Party continues to respect the Gibraltarian right to self-determination and their right to remain under British sovereignty. To that extent, Peter Hain’s comments on joint-sovereignty were not a description of current Labour policy. We remain convinced that the current tension must be resolved through dialogue, engagement and respect for the rights of Gibraltarian citizens. This dialogue must take place through the trilateral forum, which Labour created when in office. It is regrettable that the current Spanish central Government is the only party that refuses to participate in the trilateral forum.’

You can’t be clearer than that. We just have to accept that Hain is a Pain who lives in Spain – and ignore him.

(Photos: top – Peter Hain, bottom – Hadleigh Roberts)

ONE NATION POLITICS: THE GIBRALTARIAN WAY

If you had asked me before the end of last September about One Nation politics I would have pointed you in the direction of former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and the One Nation tradition in the old Conservative Party.

That was to last year’s Labour Party Conference in Manchester when party leader Ed Miliband captured the concept of One Nation for the socialists. He did it just a stone’s throw from where Benjamin Disraeli had first used the term in a speech at the Manchester Free Trade Hall some 140 years before on April 3 1872.

Now I presumed at the time this was the second coming of One Nation politics but I was wrong. It was the third. The second happened in the mid-1990’s when Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party. It was part of his New Labour journey from One Nation politics to the Stakeholder Society to the Third Way.

So to Ed Miliband’s speech at the Fabian Society Conference in London on Saturday. Certainly the Fabians were anxious for flesh to be put on the One Nation bones. Did Ed achieve that? He certainly did for me but then I have long embraced the notion of One Nation politics. Some of those around me shared my satisfaction but others didn’t and I wonder if they are waiting for Ed’s One Nation to fit their agenda, which I am not sure it is ever going to do.

One Nation politics is essentially a British, perhaps even English, dogma. It will be the socialist buzz words ahead of the next British General Election. Yet I can think of no better way to describe how politics in Gibraltar should be carried out and I would argue that in essence Fabian Picardo (not to be confused with the Fabian Society) is a One Nation politician.

In such a small community as ours the One Nation concept sits very easy indeed with Gibraltarians’ core beliefs. It wasn’t the philosophy of the GSD which set out to serve its own at the expense of the majority. However Fabian Picardo governs for all Gibraltar and not just those in the GSLP or Liberals. In his heart and soul he believes in fairness: a concept that is shared by those in government with him.

Blair’s 1997 view of One Nation politics was set out in the Labour Party’s manifesto. He stated “I want a Britain that is one nation, with shared values and purpose, where merit comes before privilege, run for the many not the few, strong and sure of itself at home and abroad.” Isn’t that 2013 Gibraltar?

Miliband in his 2012 conference speech hoped for Britain to be a land in which “patriotism, loyalty, dedication to the common cause courses through the veins of all, and nobody feels left out”. Isn’t that 2013 Gibraltar too?

If Gibraltar is to be successful this small nation has to be one nation. For well over a decade the GSLP – Liberals have demonstrated first how a coalition can work for a country in opposition and how that can be successfully carried through in to government. This is in stark contrast to the Conservative Lib Dem coalition in the UK which is self-serving and not there to serve the nation. Now as One Nation politics again takes centre stage in the UK we here can point to how it is a core Gibraltarian belief which defines our small nation as one nation.

LABOUR IS BACK ONSIDE

Monday was an important day for Gibraltar. It was Gibraltar Day in the City of London hosted by the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, and also there was an urgent debate in the House of Commons on the cross border delays which drew all party support. However I would argue the most important event of Monday was that the Labour Party demonstrated it was firmly behind Gibraltar and its right to self-determine its own future.

Of course the Labour Party was never off-side but was tainted by the attempts of its former Premier, Tony Blair, who to appease Spain’s Prime Minister José María Aznar, tried to bump Gibraltar in to a joint-sovereignty deal. He was aided and abetted in that task by his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Europe Minister Peter Hain. The stain of Hain has been with the Labour Party ever since.

However it should be remembered that the triple-lock to Gibraltar’s security was not a Tory invention but Labour’s. Also one of the most effective of Gibraltar’s MEPs was Labour’s Glen Ford who fought hard for the Rock and only lost his seat because of the socialists’ electoral collapse in the UK. Also the emergency debate in the House of Commons on Monday was secured by Jim Dobbin. He is the Labour/Co-op MP for Heywood and Middleton and is Chair of the All Party Gibraltar Group. So the Labour Party, a sister party of the GSLP, have been good friends of Gibraltar and will continue to be so.

The important contribution to Monday’s debate came from Labour’s Shadow Europe Minister, Emma Reynolds. The key words were: “The Opposition continue to support the self-determination of the Gibraltarian people and their right to remain under British sovereignty, as we did in government.”

This drew the response from the Europe Minister, David Lidington: “I am grateful for what the hon. Lady said about her support for British sovereignty over Gibraltar and respecting the rights of its people. I particularly welcome her remarks, if they mark a break with the proposals for shared sovereignty and the betrayal of the people of Gibraltar that the Labour party supported when in office.”

Even Ian Paisley the North Antrim DUP MP after welcoming the strong statement by the Minister added: “and the equally strong statement from the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds) on the Opposition Front Bench about Gibraltar’s sovereignty.”

Labour is back on track and Lidington’s acidic remark accusing the Labour Party of “betrayal” would have been water off a duck’s back to the very capable Shadow Europe Minister. It would have been surprising if he hadn’t made it but he should be very wary of using Gibraltar to score political points in the future. Gibraltar needs the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour to speak with one voice in its support.

Emma Reynolds also opened the way for her boss the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, and indeed the Labour Party Leader, Ed Miliband, to talk about Gibraltar without looking over their shoulders to the Blair era. The deeds of Blair, Straw and Hain are consigned to books: it is the words and actions of Miliband, Alexander and Reynolds that now count.

WHERE DOES GIBRALTAR GO FROM HERE?

The recent revelations in the Hain book coupled with the Brussels Process and rumours of other Conservative Government plotting with Spain tells us one simple fact: given the opportunity London would clinch a deal with Madrid over Gibraltar. That applies to whoever is in power and Cameron would snatch a deal as readily as Blair or Thatcher.

Let us take a look at this from London. There are at least one million Britons living in Spain or with second homes there. They pay taxes in Spain, many work for Spanish registered companies, others run businesses. Around the same number of Britons holiday in Spain each year; in many regions they top the tourist charts. Spain is Britain’s eighth largest trading partner and in 2011 exports were nearly eight billion pounds.

This means that when Whitehall looks at its interests with democratic Spain it is these statistics that loom large and not Gibraltar. In addition to that both are partners within the EU, both currently have centre right governments and both are members of NATO.

The days of Gibraltar’s strategic importance have largely gone and the Rock is no longer the bastion of democracy on the face of Franco’s Spain. Relations between London and Madrid are good but would be better if the Gibraltar issue could be solved.

I have no doubt that Britain will honour the pre-amble to the Constitution. In addition the ties that bind the UK and Gibraltar are very strong indeed. There is over 300 years of mutual history and institutional bonds including a shared monarch. However we are faced with two differing priorities: London would like a settlement with Spain (joint sovereignty would suit it fine) and Gibraltar has no intention of diluting its sovereignty: “no surrender!”

Every indication is that Gibraltarians wish to self govern their Rock whilst maintaining the link with Britain. What needs to be done now is for that policy to be agreed not by politicians but by the people and enshrined in a binding document. It should be a document that sets out the future for Gibraltar and how it intends to relate to Britain, the EU and the UN. It will be the will of the people endorsed by the people at a referendum.

Whether the Hain revelations are true or not the fact is that Caruana has constantly sent out messages to Spain that he is willing to discuss an Andorra style solution regardless of the fact the majority of Gibraltarians are not. He comes from the Palomo tradition and talks the Palomo talk. He has been happy for sovereignty to be on the table. As a democrat I believe he has every right personally, and I stress the personally, to do so. However when he did so as chief minister he should have realised that he gave hope to those in Madrid and London who desire a joint sovereignty accord for differing reasons. Furthermore he should have made it plain he spoke for himself and the two per cent who perhaps back such a solution but not the vast majority who would reject it out of hand: including most GSD supporters. In such delicate matters as sovereignty you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

That is why I say I believe there should be a debate amongst all Gibraltarians to define the future Gibraltar they want; how it will relate to Britain, Spain and its European neighbours. In essence it will be a political debate but it shouldn’t be clouded by party politics. It should be the will of the people and once set down represent the status quo that London and Madrid have to deal with.

ARE WE WATCHING THE WRONG FEETHAM?

When I started Gibraltar watching there was only one Feetham on the block. No not Danny but his father Michael. Yes I am that old! It was 1992 and Michael Feetham who had been a founder member of the GSLP was a government minister departing from office when Joe Bossano’s party swept back in to power in that year’s election with over seventy per cent of the vote. Those were the days, Joe!

Since then Danny has burst on to the scene. The bright young lawyer, who was a member of New Labour in the UK returned to the Rock, joined the GSLP of old Labour Joe Bossano where the sparks soon started to fly. After stomping out of the GSLP because Joe wouldn’t stand aside (and has yet still to do so) he formed the Labour Party. When that got nowhere at the 2003 elections he threw in his lot with Caruana, first as his bag carried (was it carpet I wonder?), and then after the last election as a minister in the GSD government.

As the next election approaches we have still to be assured that the chief minister intends to seek re-election for a fifth term. However it has to be said I have seen no sign that he won’t. At some stage in the future he will step aside and Danny Feetham has been tipped by many to take the leadership of the GSD. There is only one fly in that ointment – Danny is a socialist through and through, it is his birthright, and hence that puts him at odds with his own party. His arrival caused much disruption, his crowning as king could split the party asunder.

There is another factor in the Danny Feetham mix; it is personal and not political. Last year he suffered a horrific knife attack that nearly cost him his life. The scars are on his body but the emotional injuries inflicted on him and his family will also remain forever. The fact this heinous crime was committed before his children leaves me lost for the words to describe my feelings on the matter. There are rumours that Danny might stand aside at the next election. He would be a loss to the Gibraltar political scene but who could blame him if he decided enough was enough. As a skilled still-young lawyer, with minister of justice on his CV, his legal future is very lucrative indeed.

Whether Danny goes or stays I would still turn the spotlight on his brother Nigel. In the days of the Labour Party, when Danny as now holds the Feetham centre stage, I wrote several articles predicting Nigel was the one to watch. Might I yet be proved right? He would I suspect deny any such ambitions but whilst he has stayed in the background he has followed Danny from the GSLP to Labour to the GSD. A highly talented legal eagle too – he has also made his mark in the Rock’s public life, not least with his posting to the Financial Services Commission.

So let me just say this. When Caruana welcomed David Miliband to the Rock Hotel to meet with Moratinos in 2009 I was in the media pack. A British journalist standing next to me declared as Miliband shook hands with the chief minister – there is Britain’s next prime minister! Well he was totally wrong on that score.

When I attended the Fabian Society Conference in January it was addressed by the new Labour Leader. He was a Miliband, not the charismatic David but the backroom strategist Ed. Had you asked Ed in 2009 did he foresee becoming the next leader of the Labour Party he would have probably given you the same answer as Nigel would now for the GSD.

It would take a braver man than me to say that history will not repeat itself. It may well be that a Feetham will be a future chief minister, not Danny, but Nigel.

Let’s wait and see!

MILIBAND AND CO CAN LEARN FROM THE GSLP – LIBERALS

I was recently in London at a Fabian Society conference to see the new Labour Leader, Ed Miliband, deliver the keynote speech. At the same conference the Lib Dem Deputy Leader –and a good friend of Gibraltar – Simon Hughes was also taking part in one of the sessions. I had wanted to ask him what lessons the GSLP Liberal alliance in Gibraltar could learn from the British coalition should they win the forthcoming general election on the Rock. I soon realised this wasn’t the question at all – it was what Miliband and the progressive Liberals could learn from the GSLP – Liberals.

I had seen Ed’s brother a couple of times when he visited Gibraltar in 2009 for the ministerial meeting with the then Spanish foreign secretary Miguel Moratinos and the chief minister Peter Caruana. Caruana must feel a bit like HM The Queen who has been on the throne so long that she has seen numerous prime ministers and presidents come and go. Far be it from me to compare the chief minister with royalty but since he was first elected in 1996 he has seen numerous British premiers, foreign secretaries and ministers for Europe and their Spanish counterparts rise and fall too.

One of the key themes of Ed Miliband’s speech was the need to create a progressive alliance. He believes the British public want to see progressive politics and intends to position the Labour Party in the vanguard of that movement – indeed as its very standard bearer. He then held out his hand to those members of the Lib Dems who were unhappy with the coalition with the Tories. He is in the process of wooing Lib Dem voters to abandon their party and join with Labour instead. In that effort he is achieving a lot of success. However he accepts that many Liberals will want to stay within the party and fight for their beliefs – these he believes could be the coalition partners for Labour in the future.

There is extreme anger in the Labour Party towards the Lib Dems, not because they would not enter coalition with them but because by joining the Conservatives they are allowing Cameron and Osborne to push through their cuts and have also betrayed much of their election manifesto. Hence it was interesting to see Simon Hughes take part in a session – Challengers or collaborators? Can the progressives influence the coalition?

I have to be honest and say that I believe the idea of a coalition with the Conservatives sits uneasily with Hughes and he spent most of the session seemingly trying to convince himself that he and his party had been right. He lost his cool on a number of occasions especially when being baited by Labour’s then Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Douglas Alexander MP under the watchful eye of the chair, the Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee. Alexander played a key role in the negotiations with the Lib Dems after the last election and given his abrasiveness I am not surprised they failed. He is definitely not on my list as a companion on a walking holiday.

A split between Labour and the Liberals occurred in British politics over a century ago and before Tony Blair led New Labour back to power in 1997 he had spent several years along with Peter Mandelson trying to form an alliance of the left with the Lib Dems. For a variety of reasons that never happened but of course in Gibraltar it has.

Now whilst the GSLP and Liberals are very much Gibraltarian parties both have very close links with their British counterparts. Joe Bossano was closely linked with the British trade union movement and the Labour Party and it was a stalwart of the London Co-operative left, Alf Lomas, that helped him in forging the GSLP. The Liberals too have strong links with the Lib-Dems both in Britain and internationally.

So the very alliance that Miliband is trying to strike for the progressives in politics in the UK has been alive and well in Gibraltar since Joe Bossano offered the hand of coalition to the Liberal leader Dr Joseph Garcia ahead of the 2000 elections. I am sure there have been disagreements between the two over the last decade but I have certainly never heard of any rumours of a likely brake in the alliance unlike the constant media prattle over splits between the Tories and Lib Dems. Furthermore if Fabian Picardo becomes leader of the GSLP in place of Joe Bossano then the alliance is likely to be even stronger as both he and Garcia are from the same political stock.

Whether that leaves the GSD as the Tories in disguise is a moot point. One of those who would like to succeed Caruana is his minister for justice, Daniel Feetham, who is a socialist. Not only did he have ambitions to lead the GSLP but even formed his own Labour Party, so where his political philosophy fits in with the rest of the GSD is anybody’s guess.

So if the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition runs its five year course and in 2014 Ed Miliband wants some advice on how to bring his progressive alliance to reality then he should look no further than the GSLP and Liberals – who by then could have brought the art of a progressive agenda to government.