Michael Howard

[TheOstrich]

... says we should sort out those pesky Spanish for threatening Brexit mayhem over Gibralter.

I fully agree. Send a gunboat!

Oh wait! We haven't got one that still works, have we?

Serious question: Time now to scrap the Foreign Aid commitment and boost the Defence budget?

[cromwell]

I don't know about defence overall but if we want our fishing grounds back we need to be spending on fishery protection vessels, for sure. As for Michael Howard, I think the days of Sir Francis Drake are long over.

[Suff]

Really great when someone is deliberately taken out of context isn't it.

Spain thought the UK is on the back foot and that we would cave to their pressure to take over Gib again. They also thought that as 90 odd % of them voted to remain in the EU, the Gibraltarians were going to be for it.

What Howard said was simply that we had no intention of giving up Gib and that if any Brexit deal was dependent on us doing so, then we would torpedo the deal and leave without one.

At least our Type 45 destroyers work off Gib, it's only when they get to the warm waters of the Gulf that they fail, not gently as designed, but catastrophically.

Two type 45 destroyers could simultaneously track and engage the entire Spanish air force, leaving 2, currently operational. Not a minor capability. But, of course, we would not need to do anything like that as we were never talking about physical conflict in the first place. Just that they could go whistle for a deal if they thought to "reap" Gib as a consequence.

It would be similar if France were to demand that everything to do with Jersey, during EU exit, were to be the premise of France... The same response would be given.

[AliasAggers]

I think we would be very wise to increase our armed forces, if only to demonstrate that
we won't put up with any nonsense from anyone.

However, I have faith in our P.M., (which is more than I could say about most other politicians).