MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar: Breaking News.

Headlines:
Britain rejects MP for Gibraltar idea; Chief Minister Caruana off to London; Downing Street protest planned; Warnings about Anglo-Spanish Declaration; Tales of two cities in the press; The Rock, a “disappointing destination”; Original stamps for Trafalgar anniversary.

Britain rejects MP for Gibraltar idea

"Overseas Territories, including Gibraltar, are not part of the metropolitan United Kingdom and the British Government therefore has no plans for a Member of Parliament to represent Gibraltar, or any other Overseas Territory" said Dr Denis MacShane Minister for Europe. He was replying in the House of Commons to a question from Andrew Rosindell MP.

Chief Minister Caruana off to London

Chief Minister, Peter Caruana leaves for London this Sunday evening where he will host this year's Gibraltar Day reception at the Guildhall. Guests include leading business, media, professional, military and political personalities. The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, will be attending. The Chief Minister and the Foreign Secretary will make speeches. Guests will be shown a ?Gibraltar showcase' video presentation depicting 300 years of Gibraltar's history and its modern reality. There will also be musical entertainment performed by the bands of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, the Royal Marines, the London Scottish Regiment and a special performance by Andrea Martin. The Chief Minister returns on Tuesday.

Downing Street protest planned

The UK based Gibraltar Action Group will be holding a demonstration outside Downing Street on Monday noon to 5pm in protest against Gibraltar's exclusion from the EU External Frontiers Agency, and the planned "Joint Declaration" on Gibraltar to be inserted into the EU Constitution without consultation or consent of the Gibraltar government or people. "We are aware that the Labour government is doing this in a pointless attempt to appease the Spanish government, and prevent conflict over what is seen as an important EU document. However, where human rights are violated, conflict is inevitable. Legitimising Spain's false claim and her illegal restrictions will lead to more conflict, not less. These exclusions sow poison into the fabric of the EU, especially as they set dangerous precedents for one state interfering in the affairs of a territory outside its national borders," said a spokesman. He said that the equally dangerous "Joint Declaration" legitimises the indefensible Brussels Process, which likewise excludes the Gibraltarian people from a say in their own future. "The Brussels Process has been synonymous with the erosion of Gibraltarian rights in the EU, and the legitimisation of Spanish government abuse of the EU to discriminate against Gibraltarians. We ask all Gibraltarians and friends of Gibraltar to join us outside Downing Street. " The group is calling on the British government to "recognise Gibraltarian self-determination, ratify our new Constitution, so ending our ?colonial' status, and to publicly ditch the two "joints"- joint sovereignty and the Joint Declaration. We ask them not to build the Spanish government's discrimination into the fabric of the EU, and to weed out the existing discrimination." "We similarly ask the Spanish government to recognise Gibraltarian self-determination, the Gibraltar government and its institutions, to cease its illegal restrictions and false propaganda against Gibraltar and the Gibraltarian people, and thus wholeheartedly be able to engage in the process of co-operation they say they want to encourage, to the benefit of Spaniards and Gibraltarians alike".

Warnings about Anglo-Spanish Declaration

Gibraltar Labour Party has said the Anglo-Spanish Joint Declaration on Gibraltar will perpetuate in the Euro Constitution "the morally indefensible bilateral principle of the Brussels Process." They say this will define the Rock as "a disputed territory in perpetuity within the Union, give Spain's sovereignty claim "unprecedented recognition" and bring the territorial dispute within the ambit of the EU and pave the way for a political declaration in time for the resolution of this dispute. Meanwhile they express the hope that during his meetings with the FCO and the Department of Constitutional Affairs, Chief Minister Peter Caruana registers the strongest protest against the Declaration. According to Labour the Declaration that has been imposed on Gibraltar will make the Constitution "a radically different proposition for Gibraltar as compared to the UK" and points to "a very grave danger" of "the most serious concession to Spain we have ever made or been forced to make."

Tales of two cities in the press

Last week saw the launch of a 400 pages book "Cádiz, Gibraltar, y su Campo: memoria colectiva a través de la prensa' by historian Aurora Labio and co-authored by Gibraltar Chronicle Editor Dominique Searle and Juan José Téllez. The book, in Spanish and sponsored by the Diputación de Cádiz, takes a dip into the two centuries of top stories and events covered by the Gibraltar Chronicle and Diario de Cádiz, the Chronicle being the doyenne in this respect. The research into the two newspapers coverage is set out in themes by Mrs Labio, a professor at Seville University. These then carry commentaries by Téllez and Searle who some years ago wrote the Tale of Two Cities columns published in both the Chronicle and Europa Sur. Commentaries are largely angled from a contemporary perspective. The introduction is written by local poet Trino Cruz.

The Rock, a "disappointing destination"

The London Daily Telegraph Travel Awards have this year rated Gibraltar the second most disappointing destination. Andorra was the first. Gibraltar was followed by Malta, Belgium and Jamaica. The favourite was New Zealand followed by the Maldives, South Africa and Italy. The Telegraph says its Awards highlight the very best that travel can offer, and emerge from the biggest annual survey of the British travelling public. Some 25,000 Telegraph readers were questioned on their travel habits - not just where and how they like to travel, but on their attitudes to terrorism, domestic trips and holiday spending. The results revealed a fundamental shift in travelling behaviour. People have moved away from traditional two-week holidays in Europe and now think nothing of jumping on a plane to South Africa - even for the weekend. Cape Town was the first non-European destination ever to win the award for Favourite Foreign City, a title held by Paris for five straight years and Barcelona last year. This year, European destinations have been eclipsed by long-haul ones. Not only is Italy no longer our favourite holiday destination, it now lags behind the Maldives and South Africa. Respondents to the survey cited historical interest and value for money among their reasons for holidaying at home. More than 25,000 questionnaires - 20,000 through the post and 5,000 over the internet ? were mailed to readers of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. The readers in social classes A and B, had been on at least two foreign holidays in the past 12 months and spent more than £500 per person on the holidays. The data from the returned questionnaires was then sent to the market research agency NOP World for processing. Responses were weighted according to factors that included the total number of times a hotel, airline, destination or travel company was actually used by a reader and what proportion of those who had used it rated it as good, bad or indifferent.

Original stamps for Trafalgar anniversary

Gibraltar stamps depicting the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar next year will apparently incorporate minute slivers of wood, cut from the original oak timbers of HMS Victory. This was revealed in an article in The Times newspaper. According to The Times, a special set of stamps will be issued by the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau, in January 2005 to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle. "Minute silvers of wood, cut from the original oak timbers of HMS Victory during her recent restoration and refit at Portsmouth, have been stuck to the stamps by means of an innovative printing process developed by French specialist printers," reveals the article. French printers have devised the special printing process by which they can fix slivers of the ancient wood to postage stamps. The stamps are to appear as an innovative two-part omnibus issue to commemorate the great sea battle. One of the stamps which will be issued by Gibraltar, according to The Times, will be priced at £1.60 and will reproduce Francis Smitheman's painting of Nelson's flagship charging into battle under full sail. "Minute wafers of wood adhere to the ship's hull and spars." The procedure has been devised by a French printing firm, which according to The Times, has achieved what the French and Spanish fleets failed to do 200 years ago at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. The article reveals that the story began when Nigel Fordham, a member of the Nelson Society and the former head of the Crown Agents' Stamp Bureau, was tipped off that wood removed from HMS Victory during her refit in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard was available to buy. Fordham then went on to buy 50kg of oak from the ship and had to find a printer able to affix the wood to a stamp. "Impressed by the techniques developed by Cartor Security Printing, now part of International Security Printers, he visited the Cartor factory near Paris in January 2003. Cartor, under its previous owner and managing director, Gilles Le Baud, had pioneered a number of special printing processes. On one occasion the firm had found a way to stick powdered rock to stamps showing views of the Rock of Gibraltar," added the article. Royal approval is presently being sought for the stamps, issued by the United Kingdom Overseas Territories that include either a portrait of the Queen or the royal crest. The Times says that so far 11 countries, seven of them Overseas Territories, have signed up to this omnibus (with others expected to do so). Those taking part are: Ascension, Bahamas, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Nauru, St Lucia, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha, and of course Gibraltar. The release date for the first part of the Crown Agents' 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar omnibus issue is expected to be announced in January 2005