Shots Fired Off Gibraltar By RN, Spanish Miffed
+++ BREAKING NEWS +++Well okay, not so much, because it happened four days ago but Breaking because the MoD have only ‘fessed up to the public in a press release late this afternoon. From the BBC with light fisking:
The UK has apologised to Spain after the Royal Navy used a buoy with the Spanish colours for target practice. The exercise took place off the coast of Gibraltar earlier this week. The UK ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry in Madrid to explain. According to local reports, the navy hastily removed the buoy, which had a red-and-yellow marker, when approached by a Spanish police launch on Tuesday.
Ambassador Giles Paxman conceded it was insensitive and an error of judgement. While acknowledging that the target had appeared “similar” to the Spanish flag, he insisted that was not what it was supposed to represent.
Right, so from now on, nothing red and yellow can ever be used for anything ever without the risk of annoying the Spanish. That’s a whole system of traffic lights buggered then. It’s also the NATO maritime flag for “1” which may shed slightly more light on why it was used. Paxman should check his Obervers Book of Flags and then grow a backbone.
And he assured his hosts there would be no repetition of the incident.
TheEye gives no such personal guarantee, and warns that traffic lights remain fair game.
Gibraltar remains the lingering source of tension in an otherwise good relationship between the UK and Spain.
The UK claims a radius of three nautical miles around the Rock of Gibraltar as British territorial waters. Spain disputes this, and in recent months there have been bad-tempered verbal exchanges between the Royal Navy and the Spanish police.
Er, no. Under maritime law the UK controls three miles and can claim up to 12 miles. The Spanish can (and do) claim what they want. Who cares?
Spain’s main opposition Popular Party has urged the government to demand what it calls the “respect that Spain deserves”.
If you want ‘respect’ sunshine, then stop acting like a bunch of banditos and stay your side of the line. That way the Royal Gibraltar Police won’t have to keep chasing armed Guardia Civil launches away from our shores (as above in a photograph taken from Waterport Terraces last Friday).
UPDATE: A marvellous contribution from the Comments.
Ha ha .. good old “Jack” .. fuck the Dagoes ..
My former Corps proudly bears the Battle Honour “Gibraltar” on its Colours in commemoration of their capture of “The Rock” in 1704 (the remaining Battle Honours being represented by “The Great Globe” itself) ..
“Per Mare Per Terram” …
we should sink that fucking guarda civil boat once and for all
What a palaver it is getting in and out. Do you leave your car in Spain ASE or plan your routine to have time to sit endlessly in a line of traffic?
I actually live on the Rock, Subrosa; have a place within the old City Walls. No border queue for me!
Friends of mine drive in from as far away as Duquesa and Cadiz every day to work here though….its a sign of how vital Gib is to the economy of this part of Spain.
George IV was right – one of your finest hours. And with the list of honours stacked up by the Marines over the years that’s no mean feat.
Shame the ambassador had the spine of a jellyfish but, hey, nothing new there.
Lat week we had a complaint from the Asociación Unificada de Guardias Civiles – their bloody Trade Union no less! saying that we weren’t playing nicely. Sod’em,
Why the spanish think that gibraltar might even be up for discussion when they still hang on to bits of morrocco is quite beyond me. ( Not that they are connected in any way since Gib was ceded by treaty ).
The problem is/was, banned, that the UK are always prepared to sell anyone down the river to our EU enemies in exchange for a potential negotiation on the EU Olive Mountain or somesuch.
Jack Straw was quite happily doing that behind our backs until a resounding referendum with Mugabe-like percentage results sent him packing and firmly established the principle of ‘not without our consent’. But that only applies to the umbrella In-Or-Out question, not salami slices of sovereignty inbetween.
But there are things for the Spanish to gain without full rule. Regulating the Gib bunkering industry out of business and taking that work to Algeciras, for example, This part of Spain is impoverised so also joint use of the airport (currently an RAF base) would be both a sovereignty and economic victory for them. They think that by keeping up the pressure like this the UK govt will make concessions like these locally.
I see that the craven, lily-livered apology for our Ambassador is brother to none other than Jeremy Paxman ..
Says it all really …
Ambassador Giles Paxman conceded it was insensitive and an error of judgement.
Another ZaNuLabour appointee one presumes. The R.N. seems now to be manned by weeping sailors who have had their i-pods taken away, and seem likely to out surrender the French, let alone the Spanish. It’s all a very long way from those marines who captured the rock.
Your average matelot still won’t take any crap, but spine removal is an essential pre-promotion operation nowadays.
Jeremy’s brother and a lifelong Foreign Office desk chappie. Doubt he even knows one end of a gun from the other. Wouldn’t want him in my foxhole.
Strikes me as being particularly significant that the Dagos emerge from beneath their stones & get all “warry” .. just as a new European President in the form of “Rumpled Knob-skin” is unveiled ..
You’re absolutely correct in your above observation “Eye” .. Which is why we say .. “Royal Marine, pride of the Queen .. Backbone of the Royal Navy .. First in, Last out” .. Lol
Shamelss plug. Here’s my exclusive image of what the spanish flag with bullet holes would look like!
http://www.dwfisher.com/watching/pics/spain.jpg
Shamelss plug. Here’s my exclusive image of what the spanish flag with bullet holes would look like!
http://www.dwfisher.com/watching/pics/spain.jpg
Shamelss plug. Here’s my exclusive image of what the spanish flag with bullet holes would look like!
http://www.dwfisher.com/watching/pics/spain.jpg
Shamelss plug. Here’s my exclusive image of what the spanish flag with bullet holes would look like!
http://www.dwfisher.com/watching/pics/spain.jpg
Shamelss plug. Here’s my exclusive image of what the spanish flag with bullet holes would look like!
http://www.dwfisher.com/watching/pics/spain.jpg
Nice one “Watching” ..
May I please “borrow” that ? ..
I’m sure some of the old “sand-scratchers” at my local RNA/RMA (Royal Navy & Royal Marines Associations) Branch would love it ..
Splendid! Bounced to the main post, with thanks!
When the glorious Royal Marines misread the map and invaded the beach in La Linea instead of Eastern beach in Gib (a couple of years ago), the Spanish reacted superbly by treating the whole thing as a huge cock-up and a joke – which it was. A pity they can’t see the wood for the trees this time. But, as a Gib resident. one should be conscious of what will annoy our dear neighbours and this was pretty crass, whatever the NATO numbers involved. Senses of humour are different once one crosses the Channel. The Spanish understand major errors, but regard minor ones as insults. We are part of Europe now …. and always, despite the famous headline, have been. It behoves us to act with, and teach our partners, good manners.
Hi Peter ..
Firstly, if you really believe your opening statement .. you’ll probably also believe that my Granny was kicked out of the Gurkhas for having a rusty Kukri ..
As for your closing statement .. We didn’t ask to be dragged into Europe, the so-called referendum set up by that geriatric pederast Heath was a total fix .. To date, I’ve not met a single person who is prepared to admiy to voting “Yes” .. Therefore my response is “Bollocks to the lot of ’em” ..
Possibly because you were asking them if they had voted for a federalist political bloc with its own ambassadors, anthem, constitution, taxes etc etc, Captain? I don’t believe that anyone has ever been asked to vote on that. Now if you were thinking of a free-trade common market then that’s a different thing entirely…
I’m confused…in what way was controlled firing practice against an internationally recognised NATO target marker set-up an “error”?
Because the colours are the same as the Spanish flag – it is the equivalent of, say, using a green, orange and white target marker (which might well, for all I know, be an internationally recognised form of marker) off the coast of Ireland. Perfectly legitimate but very tactless and one would have thought that someone would be awake to the problem. But, in the same way as they can’t read maps, it appears that they don’t think. Please do not take this as denigratory of the armed forces whom I admire enormously and who are far better people than me etc etc, but this whole fuss need never have happened if there had been a little thought. Yes, the Spanish are overreacting, yes the Spanish are cynically exploiting a tactless action but the action was a tactless error in the first place.
Peter
Peter,
0
Good morning “Eye” ..
Well, in fact one thing led directly to the other .. As stated, I’ve never met anyone who voted “Yes” in Heath’s “Common Market” referendum ( I voted a resounding “NO”)..
That it went ahead despite that result means that the seeds were sown for what was to come .. and which has now arrived ..
I honestly, truthfully cannot for the life of me se one single, solitary advantage for we British in belonging to the EU ..
We’re the only Nation in the EU which abides by the rules .. It’s costing us dearly & we have lost our Sovereignty ..
However .. returning to the original thread ..
The RN shoots at standard “splash” targets, there being only so many permutations of colours available in the spectrum, they cannot & indeed should not be expected to make any alteration to what is a standard issue item, simply oy assuage the “hurt” feelings of another country ..
The same item is used for the same purpose, whether in the South Atlantic, the South China Sea or, as in this case off Gibraltar .. The colours being chosen so as to permit the target to be seen ..
Obviously “Day-Glo” or “Hi-Vis” colurs are out, as they’re Internationally regarded as “Emergency” or “Rescue” colour schemes ..
The Spanish are acting just like certain sections of the UK population .. just itching to be “insulted” or have their feelings “hurt” .. so that they can persue a claim for compensation ..
I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if the Spanish do the same .. Probably by seeking to increase their fish quotas off our coasts, at the expense of what’s left of our own Fishing Industry ..
As one who has thrown a LOT f high explosive arrround that particular part of the Ogin, can say that we do not usually fire at target bouys. I suspect that the red YELLOW (yellow for a good reason I suspect) red is a sign;a flag denoting something like diver down (but I know it’s not that one!) or somesuch.