Caruana is a common enough name in Gibraltar but few Caruanas that I have met are common. Certainly not the late lamented Bishop Caruana nor is the distinguished Joe Caruana MBE. He is a fine artist of exceptional talent, was a minister in the Government of Gibraltar from 1969 to 1972 in the Integration with Britain Party (IWBP) and the positive social impact he has made on Gibraltarian life over the years is immense.
Recently Joe Caruana wrote to the editor of Panorama about an article I had written, which is also on this blog. He sent a copy to me and I am happy to give my column over to him today. Since I started writing on a weekly basis about Gibraltar in 1993, long before the other Caruana, Peter, became chief minister, I have always been happy to stand aside and let my readers have their say, whether they agreed with me or not. Today I continue that tradition.
Joe Caruana wrote: “As usual David Eade’s column of the June 16 makes interesting reading, because David has hit the nail on the head. It in fact exposes the threat that is Peter Caruana to British Gibraltar because he unveils what I have always said about the CM’s repeated utterances on Andorra, he brought this out in 2002, 2008 and 2010.
“The 2008 mention of Andorra was in an interview in the Gibraltar Chronicle with the well-known Paco Oliva who needs no introduction as to his leanings. The CM said at the end of that interview the Andorra not for now, but for the future”. And how many times have we heard the CM saying that the future status of Gibraltar is up to future generations?
“Now David Eade says:
“Peter Caruana is an intelligent and ambitious man, a person who has a clear vision of where he wants Gibraltar to go – and he will not be satisfied till he has achieved that objective. Hence his final term could be the most dangerous for Gibraltar for what is equally certain is that the Rock isn’t where he wants it to be.”
“What makes Peter Caruana’s final term ‘the most dangerous for Gibraltar for what is equally certain is that the Rock isn’t where he wants it to be”?
“Those who remember the PAG’s (Party for the Autonomy of Gibraltar) or the DOVE’S policy for Gibraltar’s future status will see that the 1993 Andorra Constitution is precisely the mirror image of the DOVE’S solution for Gibraltar.
“This solution proposed that Gibraltar, the Gibraltarians, negotiated its future, independent of Britain, with both Britain and Spain and that both of these, would guarantee, or be ‘Guarantors’ of the ‘New Status of Gibraltar’. The argument that Sovereignty rested in the People and not the territory implied that the concession for Spain to accept this proposal would be that the Sovereignty of the Rock would pass to Spain as Token Sovereignty, and that the people of the Rock would retain their British Nationality. This was also the PAG’s core principle that Peter Caruana supported when he was Election Agent for the PAG the last time this Party contested a local Election.
“In a nutshell the PAG’S plans were almost like the Andorra proposal that the CM keeps harping upon even today it also implies that the CM has not stopped silently advancing the PAG’s policies.
“David Eade writes
“So when I hear new whispers this time from Spain that there are done deals or deals in the offing on joint sovereignty and the waters once Gibraltar has been to the polls and Caruana returned with the PP installed in Madrid – are they true or false? I have no idea.”
“I know a lot of people who have been suspecting this of the CM ever since he came into power, one person quoted that “a leopard does not change his spots”, since ambitious and clever politicians will take advantage of an honest electorate and using double-talk continue to attempt to achieve their goals.
“David Eade is right when he exposes the danger of voting for Peter Caruana at the next elections; I tend to agree with him because the tone of my opposition to this GSD’s policy has been precisely because I suspected the CM’s DOVISH leanings. Remember Peter Montegriffo is professed Concessionist and so was Mr. Peter Cummings. Need I say more?”
CARUANA COBBLERS
As I sat in Gibraltar’s parliament yesterday afternoon listening to the chief minister give his rebuttal to the opposition Budget speeches I was stunned to hear him say if the pensioners of Gibraltar are now counting their pennies at the end of each week under the GSD under the GSLP they were counting their pounds.
Think about it – the chief minister obviously didn’t.
