BOSSANO CAN’T BE THE ELECTION ISSUE

In Panorama on Monday Joe Garcia gave a fine forensic analysis as to why the chief minister might be opting for calling an election either before Christmas or shortly afterwards. Caruana is a wily fox and he would indeed be mad if the options laid out in that article were not being considered by him and his fellow GSD members.

Over the last year I have discussed the pending GSLP leadership change with members of the party. I have been assured that it will happen in the early part of next year so the new leader can be installed before a general election at the end of the year. But what if Caruana goes early I keep asking? To date I have yet to receive a satisfactory reply.

Joe Bossano signalled at the last election he would not contest another as leader and I believe him. However if the chief minister announced an election now the GSLP would be in turmoil. It would either have to have an internal election before turning its attention to the general election, a new leader could be shoe horned in – hardly an ideal solution - or Joe would carry on at the helm to after the election and then stand down, sometime.

Whenever the election is called the main issue should be the stewardship of Gibraltar’s affairs by the GSD since 1996. The public if the opinion polls can be believed had had enough of Caruana and the GSD and want a new government. The GSLP – Liberal alliance led by Fabian Picardo and Dr Joseph Garcia would offer the Rock a young yet experienced partnership. Equally another parliamentarian such as Gilbert Licudi could win the GSLP crown but the offering to the voters would be the same. If the GSLP went outside its MPs then we would have to see who was chosen to lead.

If it is Picardo or Licudi partnering Garcia then Caruana and the GSD would have their work cut out. The electorate has presumed that Bossano would be yesterday’s man by polling day so when asked who they would vote for have factored in his departure yet they still opted for the GSLP – Liberal coalition.

Bossano becomes an election issue if the chief minister moves quickly and leave the GSLP in turmoil with him still at the helm. Then Bossano and not the GSD’s record will be under the spotlight and that could prove fatal for the opposition coalition. I can see no reason why the GSLP cannot elect a new leader now - but if need be Bossano could lead the parliamentary team until the new man or woman has his or her feet under the table.

The GSD’s record in government has to be the issue and the attempts by the chief minister to wrap himself in the flag should fail miserably. First the GSLP and Liberals have been more outspoken than he in defending Gibraltar’s independence from Spain. In addition Caruana’s whole period in office has been dedicated to seeking accommodation with Spain through the Córdoba process and Trilaterals – that initiative now lies in ruins so trying to out Bossano Bossano won’t work.

Turning the heat on the Bossano issue would also deflect from the major problems within the GSD. Should Caruana run again or not? Will Montegriffo return? How many of the present government team will stand? Then there is the Feetham factor but that would take a whole article on its own.

(The above article appeared on October 20, 2010 in Panorama).

WILL THE GSD MAKE THE NEWS?

Some years ago I wrote that when the colossi of Gibraltar politics, Peter Caruana and Joe Bossano, decided to call it a day it would cause major seismic change.

Well Joe Bossano has announced he will not lead his GSLP in to the elections expected in 2011. He founded the party and will be a player but he will not be the Rock’s next chief minister if the GSLP – Liberal coalition triumphs as present opinion polls indicate it will.

I presumed this would be the news, now I am not so sure. Joe Boss has delivered a GSLP in good shape to the next generation of leaders and the alliance with the Liberals has never been stronger. So maybe the news will be elsewhere.

Peter Caruana led his centre-right GSD to power in 1996 and has been a victor at the polls on four consecutive occasions. So surely he’ll go for a fifth victory or will he?

Gibraltar’s legendary leader, Sir Joshua Hassan, was a four term chief minister so Caruana has matched his record. If Caurana went for a fifth – and won – he would cement his place in the Rock’s history. Yet if he lost he’d be remembered more for that defeat than his victories.

So why should he pass up another attempt? Two opinion polls in the Chronicle and Panorama have suggested he would be defeated. Polling day is still a long way off but if the people of the Rock have decided it is time for a change there is little Caruana can do to stem that tide. Also the Bossano bogeyman will no longer be there to poke a stick at – the GSLP – Liberals will be led by a new generation of politicians – as Cameron and Clegg have demonstrated it can be an irresistible combination.

If Caruana did lose I doubt he would hang about to lead the loyal opposition as Bossano has. He’d rush off in his wig and gown to earn some dosh at the Bar.

Which of course leaves his GSD in a quandary. It had been assumed that his deputy Joe Holliday would be the man to take over but there have been suggestions he won’t be a candidate at the next elections even if Caruana fights on. This would open up a power battle within the GSD that could split the party asunder.

The minister of justice, Daniel Feetham, has ambitions to the top job. However a political carpet bagger he may be but also at heart he is a socialist. His father was a minister in one of Bossano’s administrations, Danny was a member of New Labour in the UK, joined the GSLP but stamped his foot when Bossano wouldn’t stand down, rushed off to form the Labour Party and after getting a bloody nose at the polls scampered off to be Caruana’s bag carrier before being elected at the last election.

Feetham joining the GSD and its merger with his Labour Party has already caused a split with several key members including political heavyweights Keith Azopardi and Nick Cruz going off to form the PDP. It is difficult to see Feetham leading a party whose core membership oppose everything he stands for. However if he tries and fails it could see the leaders of the struggling PDP and perhaps former deputy chief minister Peter Montegriffo returning to the GSD as soon as Caruana is out of the door.

I suspect whilst all eyes are currently on the GSLP it is the GSD where the action will be. I shall keep looking in both directions.

DIDN’T WE HAVE A LOVELY TIME…?

How does the old song go – “Didn’t we have a lovely time the day we went to Gibraltar?” OK so Fiddlers Dram sang Bangor but same difference.

Earlier this week in the respected Gibraltar Daily ‘Panorama’ its editor Joe Garcia wrote: “Superficially, the visit to Gibraltar of the Spanish foreign minister will be remembered as the day Miguel Angel Moratinos came to Gibraltar for lunch, almost like any other tourist, spending a few hours on the Rock and then returning to his native Spain.”

I take his point but it wasn’t Miguel Ángel Moratinos who was the day tripper but Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband and in his relaxed demeanour it showed. Parliament is now on its summer hols and Tuesday’s meeting of the Tripartite Forum was a chance for the perhaps future British Prime Minister to press the flesh with Caruana and Moratinos, have a nice lunch, go to the top of the Rock, see the apes (I hold my tongue here) and then home again.

For Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Peter Caruana, and Spain’s Foreign Secretary, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, it was an historic occasion because it was the first time a Spanish government minister made an official visit to the Rock since it became a British colony.

Britain wants to see good relations between Spain and Gibraltar and the Córdoba Agreement signed by Britain, Spain and the Rock underpins the Tripartite Forum. However the fact is that the nitty gritty of these talks does not affect Britain at all.

The issue that nearly scuppered these talks before they started – Gibraltar’s territorial waters – does concern the UK because it claims the internationally accepted three mile limit. None-the-less it would prefer Madrid and Gibraltar to sort it out amongst themselves.

The other key issues such as the airport, ease of access across the border, pollution and management of shipping in the bay, cancer studies, co-operation between Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar are all parochial matters far from London and more importantly do not affect votes in British elections.

Which really only leaves the issue of sovereignty. I do not believe that the current British Labour Government would have any objections to Gibraltar becoming Spanish or as a first step holding joint sovereignty. After all it was that very agreement the former Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to impose on the people of the Rock. Britain will uphold the right of the people of Gibraltar to decide whether they remain British or join Spain – but the Foreign Office, of which David Miliband is the head honcho, would be very happy for the Union flag to be hauled down or at least share the same pole. So it is hardly surprising that Miliband had a relaxing day away from the Westminster village on the Rock whilst Caruana and Moratinos got down to business with cat calls from their respective opposition parties ringing in their ears.

HISTORIC HANDSHAKE

Ok it might not rival the anniversary of man or men first landing on the moon or Freddie Flintoff’s heroics at Lords where England beat Australia for the first time in 75 years at cricket but in relations between Spain and Gibraltar it is historic.

Today Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Peter Caruana, welcomed Spain’s Foreign Minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, to the Rock Hotel where they were joined at the Tripartite Ministerial talks by Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband. It was historic because it was the first official visit by a Spanish minister to Gibraltar since it became a British colony.

CHAVES: LONG TO REIGN OVER US

For as long as I have lived in Spain I have been based in Andalucía. Hence throughout that period Manuel Chaves has been the president of the regional government.

Indeed he has held that office for 19 years so has been omnipresent in my life – like Father Christmas – or God.

Now I have to get used to José Antonio Griñán who I don’t know from Adam, or Eve come to that. I am not sure if I want to be governed by a person whose surname sounds like a foot complaint.

Chaves made the chief minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana, look like a Johnny-come-lately. Caruana, who has been elected four successive times, holds the view that it is the people of Gibraltar and not his party that will tell him its time to go so he could be top dog on a small rock for ever.

And what of Manuel?

Well there are those who viewed him as the life dictator of Andalucía. Now he has moved to Madrid. I see his role is as one of three vice presidents to the president of the government himself – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. So Chaves is nicely placed when José Luis decides to spend more time with his family.

It therefore follows that in the coming years I could be ruled by Manuel Chaves again. Only this time he’ll be prime minister of Spain.

Adam and Eve it!

GIBRALTAR NEEDS TO SPEAK WITH ONE VOICE

It is accepted as general practice that opposition politicians from democratic nations do not criticise their governments when travelling abroad. Hence you can only have total sympathy for Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Peter Caruana, when this week he bitterly criticised Opposition Leader and former chief minister, Joe Bossano, for taking local political differences to the international audience at the UN.

Both politicians were in New York to address the UN Fourth Committee which deals with decolonisation. If ever a united front was called for this was it.

An angry Caruana stated: “I was very disappointed with Mr Bossano’s speech. It was an embarrassment to the Government and it was outrageous. He seems to be playing at the UN the same party politics as he plays in Gibraltar.”

The chief minister continued that the purpose of Bossano’s speech was to “undermine and rubbish the arguments and the position of the Gibraltar Government to tell the Fourth Committee that the views of the Gibraltar Government do not represent the views of Gibraltar because we only won by 300 votes, that is not true. He has to understand that Governments govern and represent the country abroad. And oppositions, especially oppositions that have lost four elections in a row do not. He cannot come here to undermine, rubbish and embarrass the Gibraltar Government’s position as if this was Parliament in Gibraltar. The place for Bossano to rubbish my foreign policy is in Gibraltar not here. Here I come as Gibraltar’s formal representative not as the leader of the GSD to be contradicted by the leader of the GSLP. He does Gibraltar a huge amount of harm.”

In some instances Gibraltar takes itself too seriously but here is an occasion when it has not taken itself seriously enough.

In the near on 15 years that I have written a weekly column about Gibraltar I have been careful to try and reflect the views of the Rock rather than my views on matters Llanito. However I have in the past been critical of Bossano’s desire to go show boating before the UN and can only repeat my distaste now. If he has a role to play before the Fourth Committee it is to stand shoulder to shoulder with his Chief Minister. If he can’t do that then he should stay away.

With some 18,000 voters the Rock is in world-terms a village, and a small village at that. Gibraltar’s inability to present itself before the UN speaking with one voice has made it a laughing stock in the international corridors of power. And for that the ball of blame is firmly in Bossano’s court.