- Apr 5, 2014
- 26,340
I think the Gibraltar thing is more a permanently dented case of Spanish pride. Ironic since they hold two enclaves in Morocco. My view is simplistic if slightly uncaring. If the historical inhabitants of a land want to identify with a certain nationality then they should be left alone. In Gibraltar's case that's pretty much everyone.I don’t disagree, although I’ve actually never been there myself.
But then you could say pretty much the same thing about every museum and art gallery in countless other nations too. I’m just wondering where this starts and stops.
I don’t know if we just get to hear about it more in this country because it involves us? It’s a bit like the Spanish claim on Gibraltar which goes back to the early 18th century and the Spanish Wars of Succession which seems to be in the news a lot. I was in Madrid at the weekend and I saw it on a scarf at the football, for example. But much later territorial ‘disputes’ like France getting Nice and Corsica from Italy in later peace treaties from the Napoleonic Wars (I haven’t double checked that, it’s from memory) never seem to come up any more. Edit: Corsica became part of France in 1768, Nice in 1860. Today we view those changes as permanent and beyond dispute, yet changes pre-dating both (Gibraltar) are considered up for grabs 320 years later!
We are probably seen as a soft touch these days, which may be true, especially since Brexit which lost us a lot of friends.