Griffin would rather see the flag of Spain over the Rock
The cowardly remarks made by BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP to Spanish media officials has sparked fury in Gibraltar, says the Gibraltar Chronicle.
The peninsula’s newspaper reports how “Griffin would abandon 30,000 Gibraltarians” to Spanish fascists. The paper also informs its readers how the BNP leader spent the June 2009 European elections campaigning for votes on the Rock. This stab in the back by the nationalist leader has touched a raw nerve as representatives queue up to hit back.
A furious Graham Watson MEP, representative for Gibraltar in the European Parliament, told the Chronicle, “Griffin hoped to make a quiet sop to Spanish extremists, but was exposed by anti-BNP campaigners”.
“Griffin’s words show the complete lack of respect that the BNP hold towards freedom and democracy. Far from defending the British people, he has shown that his party would betray the trust of thousands in order to please his fascist friends,” said Mr Watson.
“As long as the people of Gibraltar wish to remain British citizens, they should be guaranteed protection by the British government. The BNP may wish abandon British subjects, but I will never support it.”
Griffin with Roberto Fiore and Spanish nationalist leader Manuel Canduela
This bungling betrayal by the BNP leader will have caused him immense damage. During the Euro elections, Griffin carefully crafted a “Churchillian” / “British Bull Dog” image and yet as this episode has shown he capitulated to Spanish fascists when under pressure from the media. Griffin may think he is the heir to Winston Churchill but he would never have sold out British interests to fascists.
Tags: Gibraltar, Manuel Canduela, Nick Griffin, Roberto Fiore
I read the article in the Gibraltar Chronical. It appears as if they copied the article from the nothingbritish website. Hardly a newsworthy item, especially considering it is a beatup; a nasty figment of THIS nasty and pathetic website’s imagination.
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He was probably watching Real Madrid (Franco’s team) with his Falangist chums. P.S. Gibraltar is a peninsula, not an island.
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”The island’s newspaper reports how “Griffin would abandon 30,000 Gibraltarians” to Spanish fascists.”
Really? Spain has a ‘fascist’ government in situ?
The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (Spanish: Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE), is the ruling party in Spain and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in 1833. It identifies itself as a centre-left, social-democratic, democratic socialist and progressivist party.
It has had strong ties with the Unión General de Trabajadores, a Spanish trade union. For decades, UGT membership was a requirement for PSOE membership. During the 1980s, though, UGT criticised the economic policies of the PSOE, even calling for a general strike on December 14, 1988.
Since the Spanish legislative election, 2004 on March 14, 2004 it is the party of government. It forms part of the Party of European Socialists and is a member of the Socialist International.
Hardly the CV of a ‘fascist’ party eh?
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It’s clear from the context that NG was talking off the cuff here and is seeking to highlight the Islamic threat to Europe rather than outlining a serious item of policy. It’s a flimsy non-story – the result of another press release by Lord Bethell, whose nothingbritish campaign is simply the BNP-bashing department of the Tory PR machine. And the Sun, with its rabid anti-BNP agenda, is prepared to suspend all journalistic integrity by swallowing this party political press release completely uncritically, without even giving NG a right to reply.
Pathetic.
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If Lord Bethell or The Sun were so concerned about the sovereignty of Gibraltar and protecting the character of British territory (although it seems a little perverse for Tories to take this view when they are pro-EU and pro-mass immigration), why not simply ask the BNP to clarify their policy on this matter? If Lord, Bethell or The Sun were actually interested in getting to the truth, rather than scoring a cheap party political point and avoiding the real issues, that’s what they would have done.
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Just one last point. What’s particularly ironic is that while they’re getting terribly patriotic over Gibraltar (Lord Bethell told the Sun how the Union Jack is the only flag that should be flown there), Lord Bethell and The Sun don’t seem to care about the fact that here in east London, there are already, literally, Islamic flags flying over us. British sovereignty, identity and culture has largely disapppeared and been replaced by an Islam in many ways: the population, the schools, the businesses, the local council, street signs, the way disputes are resolved. And other areas of the UK are the same now. If you’re so concerned about our sovereignty, why not tackle the loss of sovereignty and identity in our own capital city, rather than concentrating on a hypothetical Gibraltar handover which we all know is never going to happen?
Of course, Lord Bethell has never walked these streets, and will never have to. So it’s easier for him to further his political career by concentrating his fake patriotism on these fake issues and ignoring the real ones, the tough ones, the ones that mean that millions of British people are suffering right now because of genuine loss of sovereignty. Anyone who lives in an area like this knows what I’m talking about, and it’s something that he and his party don’t care about and won’t do anything to change.
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Albert Yome
technically Gibraltar is an island, with a small isthmus connecting it to the mainland. Land reclaimation over the centuries gives it the appearance of a peninsular.
Bethell seems to cry crocodile tears for Gibraltar, whilst selling out the rest of Britain.
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Free the Basque country
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[...] Griffin Gibraltar row rumbles on « Nothing BritishBy mauriceNick Griffin’s cowardly remarks to Spanish media officials has sparked furyin Gibraltar, says the island’s newspaper, the Gibraltar Chronicle.<http://www.nothingbritish.com/12/griffin-gibraltar-row-rumbles-on/> [...]
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“WTF says:
November 30, 2009 at 9:53 am
You (Nothing British) make it sound like a done deal!
I would bet good money that the next Conservative (Government) would betray Gibralter long before Nick Griffin could or would!”
Is what I should have said!
ED, How about some edit or delete facilities for our own screwed up comments?
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I think it is only us here that cause this row to “rumble” on!
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Aussie Al – this blog is a necessary part of the fight against modern British fascists, which is why I read it daily.
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How ironic that a party that claims to be patriotic, and hold the best interests of the British people, wishes to give-away a “The Rock” which wishes to remain a British Territory and whose citizens have firecly rejected claims by the Spanish.
Even worse, he wants to sell them out to fascists! Then again, they are his brethern.
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All that Nick Griffin said was that he would rather see a Spanish flag than an Islamic flag over Gibralter. He does not say he expects to have to make that choice. Less still, that he wants to see the Spanish flag flying.
Mind you, I wouldn’t expect Lib/Lab/Con supporters to understand the concept of a hypothetical choice.
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mlj, they would be well aware, but they choose to believe all spurious claims concerning the BNP. They are real haters.
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Frugal, you must be frustrated that this site cannot come up with anything of substance then?
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A lot of it is a bit thin…..
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Gib is British and will remain so,what Mr Griffin meant was to have joint British and Spanish patrols in combating Illegal invaders from the continent of mankind AFRICA.What a joke.
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Nothing British are milking this non-story for all its worth…
Come on Bethell, where does it say Griffin would abandon Gibraltar?!
NOWHERE!
Here’s a FACT for you to digest: Fat conservative pervert Alister Cooling likes looking at child porn and he’s now behind bars because of it!
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castrate the bastard
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and after griffin then that cooling should be next…….cue anger from herr griffin fan club!
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alister cooling the kiddy fiddler still contibutes to this website even though he`s in prison! Using the name SAM PAULI
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‘Sam Pauli’ is really an anagram concerning his sexual proclivities Sam.
It’s an anagram of ’salami up’
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Sam Green youre fascination with child pornography seems to have taken over you life,you beast,trying to deflect your horrible little hobby on to me….shame on you nonce..skydog youre just a sheep ….havent you got anything in your own head you can say or will you follow Sham Green into battle because he flys the butchers apron taxi for a couple a fannies
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Both Sams should either post reasonable discussion points or leave the site.
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AussieAl – As a Gibraltarian living in Gibraltar, I can tell you (looking out of my window) that Gibraltar is categorically NOT an island. It is, as Mr. Yome pointed out, a peninsula.
I have written a letter which appears in today’s Gibraltar Chronicle stating that the BNP has no place in Gibraltar’s society or political life. Gibraltarians do not need the kind of support that identifies us with the politics of racism, holocaust denial, and the other unsavoury aspects of an extreme right-wing platform. We have our own political parties who do battle on real issues which affect us on a day to day basis. We are rather more concerned with Spain’s very real claim on our sovereignty, a claim incidentally which is supported by Griffin’s chums in the Spanish political right, rather than with the false spectre of an “Islamic” flag flying over us. Ours is a small, tolerant community, with a majority of people from non-British backgrounds (Maltese, Genoese, Spanish, Portuguese, etc) and various creeds.
If the BNP think we are a community of 30,000 White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, they are very much mistaken. Do not poison our way of life with your intolerance and hate. To borrow a very BNP phrase…”BNP Go Home”.
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For the geographically challenged amongst you, please have a look at this map of Gibraltar c.1750. http://www.mapsorama.com/maps/europe/gibraltar/Gibraltar1750.jpg
This clearly shows it is a peninsula (no ‘r’ in the noun). Furthermore, for those with spelling difficulties, Gibraltar ends in ‘ar’ not ‘er’. Incidentally, it also refers (in French) to the Bay being the Bay of Gibraltar, not the ‘Bay of Algeciras’ as the fascists renamed (in Spanish). Imagine the English Channel being renamed not ‘La Manche’ but ‘Le Canal de France’. Wouldn’t go down well, would it?
So please, keep your Mr Griffin and other vile scum like Peter Hain, Jack Straw and George Galloway out of our affairs, thank you very much.
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With your huge amount of tolerance why the worry about Spain?
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The “worry about Spain” is based not on racial or ethnic reasons but on a simple matter of political identity. Gibraltarians do not want to form part of the Spanish state. They have never formed part of that state and the territory itself has not formed part of Spain since 1704. We do, however, want good relations, close social and cultural ties, and a strong economic relationship with Spain as befits two neighbours on the modern European continent.
All that is a world away from developing political positions based on racism and xenophobia, as the BNP is fond of doing.
By contrast, in a hypothetical scenario featuring two extremist right-wing parties in government in the UK and Spain, Griffin would be prepared to come to an “agreement between equals”, ignore the wishes of the Gibraltarians, and “sort it [the Gibraltar question] out”. The BNP have obviously yet to grasp the concept of the self-determination of peoples and recognise that the ultimate arbiters of the Gibraltar issue are the Gibraltarians themselves, and not a some merry brotherhood of fascists in Madrid and Whitehall.
THESE are the real issues, and not some ludicrious notion of an “Islamic” threat to Gibraltarian sovereignty.
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Dennis Beiso says: “The BNP have obviously yet to grasp the concept of the self-determination of peoples”
And you suppose Labour, Lib Dumbs and the tories have eh?!
Jack ’son of a coward’ Straw was willing to sell you guys down the line not so long ago, and wheres our referendum on the EU we have been promised all these years?!
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I would agree that the Gibraltarians should have the final word on how Gibraltar is run & the BNP are no threat to that, they couldn’t do anything to Gibraltar even if they wanted to, so it is a non issue.
I think Nick should have steered clear of the subject as it is in the realms of fantasy politics.
The question is if the next Conservative government decides the present situation should change.
But I think they will be too busy with other things, to think of altering Gibraltar’s situation.
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IT is very sad that papers have to resort to writting such rubbish about the British National Party and its chairmain Nick Griffin MEP in order to pusue thier own intrests and tarnish the good name of the party , its leader and members and most of all the good name of indiginous british people. Very true to say the spanish are facists and it shows daily in the way gibraltar and its citizens are treated by spain. not only that but they do not recognise British Territorial waters.
Having said all this I still must make very clear the is absolutely no truth to the alleged comments made by Nick Griffin MEP and if the papers bothered to check out their facts they would realise that The BNP will never sell the Rock to spain.
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and by the way Mr yome…we have known each other since we were kids and it really offends me a lot to be called vile scum…..if you bother to look into the real issues of things and do proper reseach you will notice that the vile scum is those that have got the UK in the possition it is now, stolen from the public purse to claim second homes and have allowed into great britain all these scroungers especially the islamic radicals ( this is on its way to gib)so you better wake up forget the illusios you read and believe and start to look at things the way they are. may i also add the best gibraltar can do right now is believe in the BNP and lets get rid of the real vile scum …the islamics we have now especially their terrorist offsprings that are now trying to dominate a catholic country with their islamic crap aned over rule the indiginous british citizen and gibraltarian
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I am quite clear, Mr. Ellul, as are a majority of my fellow Gibraltarians, that that the BNP would quite happily “do a deal” with their fellow fascists in Spain and sell us down the river.
The best that Gibraltar can do – now and in future – is to ignore the politics of the BNP altogether. Gibraltar is a community which has historically been built on immigration (and I would encourage Mr. Ellul to read his Gibraltarian history). Is Ellul an “indigenous British” name? Or does it perhaps come from Malta, Portugal, or Genoa? I find constructing family trees in Gibraltar and researching where our forefathers really came from a refreshing exercise. Perhaps you should do the same.
Ethnicity and race have fortunately never had a role to play in Gibraltarian politics. The BNP – a political grouping which has no direct relevance to Gibraltarian life beyond scrounging for votes at European election time – is now attempting to poison our politics and way of life by peddling racism and hatred, for reasons best known to themselves.
And Mr. Ellul – do NOT use Catholicism to back your racism. There are many faiths which live alongside each other in this country and Gibraltar is NOT a “Catholic country”. It is a country in which Catholics are a majority, but religion and state are, as they should always be, separate.
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”Both Sams should either post reasonable discussion points or leave the site.”
No! Let Sam Pauli stay! He makes even the cretins of the UAF look like mastermind.
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Mr Beiso.
I am not going to comment on the whole issue in this particular thread, but would just like to say ive read your comments and have to commend you. If you are an example of the attitudes of Gibraltarians i will make a point of visiting at the earliest opportunity.
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