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Royal Navy confronts Spanish warship in Gib's waters

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Tequila
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07 Feb 2013, 6:58 am

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Tensions growing off Gibraltar after Royal Navy confronts Spanish warship that had strayed into British waters
  • Vessel was spotted cruising irregularly and warned to leave
  • Foreign Office launches diplomatic protest with Madrid over the incursion
A Spanish warship has been confronted by the Royal Navy near Gibraltar amid growing tensions around the UK outpost.

The armed patrol vessel, which typically carries special forces and marines, was spotted cruising irregularly and warned repeatedly to leave British waters.

Last night, the Foreign Office lodged a diplomatic protest with Madrid over the most serious episode of sabre-rattling off the Rock in half a century.

This kind of crap has been going on for years now, whether it's the Guardia Civil holding people up needlessly at the border for a hours on end every time they have a hissy-fit or whether it's the Spanish fishing vessels and the Guardia Civil invading British Gibraltar's waters. It's time enough that the UK put their foot down and made it crystal clear to the Spanish that this nonsense isn't tolerated. As the Gibraltarians are saying, by pussyfooting around the issue it will embolden the Spanish to take things further.

Incidentally, the thousands of Spaniards who go to work every day in Gibraltar aren't happy with this state of affairs either, as it makes life much more difficult for them too.



ArrantPariah
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08 Feb 2013, 7:47 am

It seems interesting that you guys hold on to Gibraltar and the Falklands tooth and nail, but, when it came to Hong Kong, you couldn't let it go fast enough. China wasn't even asking for it: you just said "Here! Take it! We don't want it any more!"



Tequila
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08 Feb 2013, 8:33 am

ArrantPariah wrote:
It seems interesting that you guys hold on to Gibraltar and the Falklands tooth and nail, but, when it came to Hong Kong, you couldn't let it go fast enough. China wasn't even asking for it: you just said "Here! Take it! We don't want it any more!"


We had to hand back the New Territories because of the expiration of the 99-year lease and the Chinese would easily have made Kowloon ungovernable anyway, even if we had managed to keep it.

Margaret Thatcher tried the best she could to keep hold of Hong Kong, but if she couldn't do it, pretty much no-one could. It would have been militarily indefensible.