Gibraltar clings to British way of life as fence to Spain comes down

The business of Royal Mail red pillar boxes is booming in Gibraltar, with more than a dozen planned on the Rock. A fleet of black cabs is on its way too and — if the territory didn’t feel British enough — there are more red phone boxes landing for anyone without a mobile phone.

Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s long-serving chief minister, was on bullish form after a UK-EU treaty was published that put Spanish boots on the ground inside the territory for the first time.

The territory, Picardo insisted as he outlined the pillar box plans, would continue to “feel very British indeed”, despite fears among residents that their unique way of life was under threat.

There has been a prevailing mood of resignation to the treaty, which was born out of a Brexit deal. Picardo laid blame for the deal firmly at the door of the Conservatives, who denounced the treaty as a sell-out. “They were the ones who got us into this mess in the first place and I’ve been working with my team to get us out of it for the past ten years,” he said. “We were yanked out [of Europe] and we’ve now managed to negotiate a way back in.”

While the treaty ends a decade of uncertainty, Owen Smith, the chair of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses, cautioned that there would be a great deal of short-term pain for businesses. New tax rates, effectively a VAT duty to align the Rock with the EU, will start by mid-April. “If you are importing goods from the UK, but those goods are manufactured elsewhere, as many goods from the UK are, you will have paid a 12 per cent EU tariff on top of the new 15 per cent transaction tax,” he said.

“So we’re talking about 27, 29, 30 per cent really, when by the time you factor in things like transport costs, packaging and so on, that’s huge.”

The border crossing between Spain and the Rock of Gibraltar

FRANCISCO J. OLMO/EUROPA PRESS/GETTY IMAGES

Most of his members are integrated into a UK supply chain that will no longer be economically viable. “Even when they do change their supply chain [to the EU] what we’re going to lose is what makes Gibraltar unique, which is that we are a British overseas territory,” he added. “We have British names on our High Street, British products in our shops. We have a UK three-pin plug in our wall and all of those things I think are under threat. Exactly how that fact is going to pan out is not really fully understood at this juncture.”

For Smith, being British was the unique selling point of Gibraltar. “There’s lots of very worried people out there,” he said. “I think that is who and what Gibraltar is: a British territory. We are British citizens and people don’t want to lose that. Products and supply lines and so on are only part of that, there’s many other far more important things, but they’re an important part of it, and they’re also an important part of our USP.”

Main Street is the duty-free hub of Gibraltar

ALAMY

Erika Pozo, another lawyer, said the physical removal of the border fence, the Verja, which the British erected in 1909 after a yellow fever epidemic, stirred stormy emotions.

“It will be celebrated by many in Spain as a symbolic victory, reinforcing their longstanding sovereignty claim,” she said. “This in my opinion is tragic and the perception it will give cannot be ignored. I have to say that personally I will feel less British and less secure than I once did.”

She added: “The most crucial point for me is the reality of having Spanish officers operating at our entry points and on the ground in Gibraltar, however limited or technical that role may be. Many, particularly the older generation who lived through periods of hardship and tension, will struggle with that.”

However, James Barton, a 27-year-old entrepreneur operating three restaurants along Gibraltar’s Main Street, said the future was brighter after last week’s treaty. “As a younger person I am personally looking forward to the disappearance of the border, for ease of travel to Spain which we all like to do, no more queues,” he said.

Main Street in Gibraltar

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He has no qualms about Gibraltar losing its identity. “Even though it has many Spanish aspects to it, the social identity is extremely strong,” he said. “When you see all the referendums that have happened, it’s always been overwhelmingly voted to stay British.

“There’s never a doubt, you know, if you ask any Gibraltarian, we’ve always been proud of our Britishness, and we celebrate it. So I don’t think that will change anytime soon.”