Some readers of TheEye and St Crispin reside in Gibraltar, and they will be snoozing this morning. Or down the pub early.

Maybe both.

Why? Because a few years ago Gib took the EU to court in a battle to maintain the right of the Gibraltar Parliament to set its own tax rates as it saw fit. The European Commission (basically the Spanish influence) didn’t like this and declared it illegal, saying that the tax rate had to be identical to that of the United Kingdom.

The rumble of tanks at the border has been heard before; both metaphorically and literally.

The European Court of First Instance disagreed with Spain in November and as a sign of celebration (plus two fingers to the Spaniards) First Minister Peter Caruana declared a one-off Bank Holiday today on 12th Jan to mark the fact that Gibraltar can do…well..what it’s always been allowed to do anyway – set its own tax without EU interference.

Today Gibraltarians slumber for the day whilst the UK works because Gib successfully stuck a finger up at the EU. Is there a lesson for us all here?