Problems on the Rock

ANOTHER war of words has broken out between Spain and Britain over Gibraltar, yet again. This time Spain has accused the Royal Navy of using a Spanish flag as a target in Gibraltarian water (the British Navy has said that it was a signal flag which looks very like the Spanish flag!) and now Spanish patrol boats are entering waters which Britain claims are Gibraltarian waters but Spain says they belong to them. Don´t you think that perhaps the time has come for both Britain and Spain to grow up a bit and start acting like adults instead of infants? Firstly, the Royal Navy should know better than to use a Spanish style flag for target practice. It was obviously going to anger the Spanish authorities. Secondly, haven´t Spanish patrol boats got better things to do than mess around in Gibraltarian waters? At a time when illegal immigration between North Africa and Spain is still a real problem, Spain uses two of its valuable patrol boats to play a game of cat and mouse with the Royal Navy in Gibraltarian waters.

Surely, the time has come for the issue of Gibraltar to be settled once and for all. Perhaps the European Union could have a role. Enough is enough and the sooner the issue is settled, so much the better.