Gib and GB
Sir: Simon Courtauld writes (Notebook, 25 February) about Gibraltar in a manner which displays total ignorance of the true state of affairs. Firstly the TGWU is the only industrial union in Gibraltar and already represents the 300 Spaniards who work there. This is understood and accepted by Spanish unions.
Secondly, the pledge not to hand our Gibraltarians to another power against their wishes is not Harold Wilson's. It is enshrined in the preamble to the 1969 Gibraltar Constitution approved by Her Majesty the Queen, which most Gibraltarians assume to be sacrosanct.
I am sure that Mrs Thatcher, and indeed the majority of the British people, will reject the sort of opportunistic and cynical advice Mr Courtauld is proffering. Britain may now be a much poorer nation in relative economic terms compared to the past, but if it were prepared to sell a small community down the river like that then it would indeed be totally bankrupt in all the values that have made Gibraltarians proud of their 270 years of history shared with Britons. If that road were to be followed, Mr Courtauld could keep his offer of preserving UK citizenship for us; most Gibraltarians would be ashamed of being citizens of a nation capable of such a betrayal.
J. Bossano
Leader of the Opposition, House of Assembly, Gibraltar
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