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)

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.

BLAIR’S LEGACY TO GIBRALTAR: UNCERTAINTY

When Gibraltarians reflect on recent British premiers it is usually Mrs Thatcher who invokes their ire. The Iron Lady and her Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe were responsible for the Brussels Process which many identify as being at the heart of Gibraltar’s problems with Spain.

The Brussels Process certainly was not helpful but like the Cordoba Accord may well disappear in time. The British PM who has cast his shadow over the lives of Gibraltarians for evermore is Tony Blair and his sin is he blinked.

Ever since 1703 Spain has been constant in its belief – Gibraltar is Spanish and every government for over 300 years, regardless of political persuasion, has followed that dogma.

Gibraltar is British has also been the mantra of successive UK government’s including Mrs Thatcher’s. Remember it was she who snubbed Madrid by sending Prince Charles and the hapless Diana off from Gibraltar on their honeymoon thus invoking the fury of Spain. The Royals had nothing to do with it, they would have been happy to go to Bognor.

What has changed for Gibraltar is that Tony Blair, who wishing to engage with José María Aznar’s government, blinked and for the first time in history Madrid saw that its ambitions for Gibraltar could become a reality.

Blair, his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and the Minister for Europe Peter Hain, actively tried to drag Gibraltar in to a joint sovereignty agreement, which without doubt, would have one day have been a sole sovereignty deal. The UK government did not bow to Spanish pressure; Blair actively promoted the policy and was furious when the pesky Gibraltarians and their chief minister Peter Caruana put paid to it by holding a referendum which thoroughly rejected any such sell out. Madrid decried the validity of the referendum but its stance paled in to insignificance compared with the fury voiced by London.

What brought this to mind were my fellow jimenato José Carracao’s recent comments when the PSOE Senator stated that Gibraltar’s military role was the key reason why the Rock is not being returned to Spain. In a sense he is right and one can understand why a Spanish politician would hold such a view.

Gibraltar has always been a British military base and it is only in comparatively recent years that any thought or voice has been given to the Gibraltarian people. Whilst the November 7 2002 referendum was decisive in one sense what probably stopped Blair in his tracks was the total opposition of the Ministry of Defence to any joint sovereignty deal as it would compromise the military installations.

So seen from Madrid, whilst Blair’s government was very happy to promote and proceed with a joint sovereignty deal, in the end it floundered on the MoD’s opposition. That is what is remembered by Carracao and other Spanish politicians and in that memory they are not wrong.

The opposition of Gibraltarians and the referendum are secondary for Spain. Madrid views the subject of Gibraltar’s sovereignty to be a matter between it and London so the wishes of the people of the Rock do not enter in to the equation.

The problem for Gibraltarians is that whilst Spain has stayed steadfast over its claim Britain has not. Indeed Blair’s government enthusiastically tried to bounce the Rock in to a joint sovereignty deal. Hence Madrid believes if it happened once, it can happen again with London the weak link in the sovereignty chain. What’s more the stumbling block is not the Gibraltarians but the military base. That is Blair’s legacy for Gibraltar.