Labour is “unequivocally committed” to protecting the British sovereignty of Gibraltar, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said during a surprise visit to the Rock. Mrs Thornberry was shown around Gibraltar International Airport and the frontier by Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, on the back of a long standing promise. Read full article
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Apr 28th, 2017 - 09:38 am - Link - Report abuse -2TWIMC...
Been looking at the “Gibraltar Business Model”...
They import yearly some 170,000,000 packs of fags...
They tax eack pack with £1.20...,what covers about 30% of Gib's yearly drift budget...
Only ~10% of them cigarettes are legaly sold in the Rock..., the rest “dissapears misteriously”...
The Spanish government calculates that this “Viveza Inglesa” costs them ~200,000,000€ yearly...
And that's only half of the ~£400,000,000 that the Engrish government calculates they miss yearly in taxation from the Engrish betting industry offshored to Gibraltar...
After all that “Viveza Inglesa”..., the Imperial Client Population of Gibraltar still has the Chutzpah of asking for a...: Clear and explicit commitments to Gibraltar from UK political parties...》!!!
Life is tough for Argie squatters, isn't it. Never mind, this one has nothing to do with you unless you want cheap fags. I am sure that they could manage an export trade with Argie land.
Apr 28th, 2017 - 12:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“I invite the UK, on this first occasion at the UN after Brexit, to end the colonial anachronism of Gibraltar with an agreed solution between both countries to restore the territorial integrity of Spain and bring benefits to the people of Gibraltar and the Spanish area of Campo de Gibraltar.” These were the words of His Majesty King Felipe of Spain during his speech at the United Nations in September last year.
Apr 28th, 2017 - 01:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So, according to the Spanish, territorial integrity, as per UN Resolution 1514 (XV) (1960), constrains the right to self-determination.
Hm, let's take a look at that one: Gibraltar – Territorial Integrity: https://www.academia.edu/29347730/Gibraltar_-Territorial_Integrity
Mr. Think...
Apr 28th, 2017 - 02:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Apparently it appears the cigarette trade in Gibraltar is fuelled by none other than the unemployed and impoverished Spaniards of the surrounding area, desperate to turn a profit by smuggling hundreds of packets of cigarettes a day...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23784627
I don't think there is a law in any country that limits the amount of cigarettes a person can purchase...
As Voice says, it's the Spaniards who are doing the smuggling.
Apr 28th, 2017 - 07:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0In the days of prohibition in the USA, countries who produced alcoholic drinks were doing quite well supplying booze to American importers...Capone and co. The suppliers broke no international law in doing so and neither did the shippers..
My great-uncle left the RN in WW1 with the rank of Captain, moved to Canada and bought and ran a cargo vessel between Canada and the USA. When prohibition came in he ran cargoes of spirits outside US territorial waters to be picked up by small US coasters and taken to remote locations on the US mainland. By the end of prohibition, he had his own shipping line with 10 vessels ! My uncle crewed for him for a few years and swore that he had met Al Capone on one of the trips !
There was a thriving business in the EU selling huge quantities of tobacco, cigarettes and booze to UK citizens to bring back ostensibly for their own use. Hard to justify when it was a 30 cwt. Ford Transit loaded to the gunnels. Belgium was notorious as a supplier of cigarettes for this trade.
It was a talking point when I was in Customs and Excise.
There are warehouses in Calais built to cater for day trippers bringing their cars across, loading up with fags and booze and returning to the UK the same day.
So, Think, it has happened everywhere and is not peculiar to Gibraltar.
TWIMC...
Apr 28th, 2017 - 09:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0No matter what..., the minute after the UKexit..., by Spanish request..., the OLAF is going all in against the evident bad faith from the Continental Engrish side on the Gibraltar cigarette smuggling issue...:-(
Losing a whopping 30% of their yearly drift budget will learn them Imperial Client Population of Gibraltar...:-0
Maybe the Insular Engrish should do something of sorts to get their own gambling tax revenues back to them Green Isles....;-)
Why wait for Brexit? OLAF seems perfectly capable of dealing with smuggling from both inside and outside the EU:
Apr 29th, 2017 - 09:59 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://ec.europa.eu/anti-fraud/media-corner/news/03-04-2017/massive-transnational-operation-halts-criminal-organization-olaf-helps_en
And the Spanish know all about smuggling from both sides:
www.vice.com/en_uk/article/the-lady-mules-of-morocco-702-v18n2
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