VOTE TORY? – A MOAT POINT!

When the people of Gibraltar go to the polls to elect their Euro MPs unlike their counterparts in the UK and Spain they will be voting for non-Gibraltarian parties.

Hence they can now vote for the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems and so on. Whilst the GSLP has links to Labour and the Liberals to the Lib Dems there is no Conservative Party on the Rock.

In recent weeks Tory Grandee Michael Ancram and the party’s deputy leader, William Hague, have travelled to Gibraltar to press the flesh.

Now Gibraltarians read British newspapers, listen to the BBC News on radio and can access via satellite British TV so they are just as aware as anybody else of the furore surrounding the MPs expenses scandal.

They might be intrigued to know that Michael Ancram reportedly claimed for the maintenance of his swimming whilst Douglas Hogg, a former Agriculture Secretary, is said to have spent more than £2,000 clearing the moat on his Lincolnshire estate shown which dates back to the 14 th century. Is this the party they should be voting for?

Few Gibraltarians enjoy the luxury of a pool and even the ‘muy señorito’ – ‘little lordling’ chief minister, Peter Caruana, has not installed a moat around his Gibraltar apartment home – even though he might find the prospect very attractive.

True Labour had their hands in the trough too but the British Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, was caught charging for a sink plug and sex movies for her husband – at least those purchases would resonate with many Gibraltarians. But a moat?

So will Gibraltarians vote Tory? It’s a moat point!

(The moat shown in the photo is Hever Castle).