When there is respect for the UN Charter of Human Rights in “free association”, meaning the right to form political groups opposed to the ruling clique and when ordinary people have a say in a secret and fair ballot in the choice of party and/or leader of their country.

The fact that other countries may have defective democracies does not by any sort of contrast or comparison you care to make have any relevance to and/or justification for what happens in Cuba. Having a secret vote as described above is a sine qua non, even if other elements are desirable if not equally essential.

This isn’t complicated, though apparently many continue to struggle with it.

As for your “When I am convinced ….” the intellectual poverty of this argument is breathtaking. If a feeble-minded person watched the North Korean army goose-stepping around and/or thousands of flower-garlanded kids strutting about in perfect formation on the Day of National Celebration then that same feeble-minded person might also be “convinced” that the regime had mass support. Perhaps it does, since they have been brainwashed for 60 years since the Yanks gave up trying to free them in the face of the opposing support of our current best trading partner and the country to which the French IMF stooge Lagarde and others are currently holding out the begging bowl.

Your “convictions” are worthless. I believe Gaddafi was convinced of his people’s love. “The people love me,” he said. HILARIOUS! When you have a ruling clique then the people have no CHOICE,

Dictatorship? not complicated – from Merrien-Webster.

A) a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in a dictator or a small clique

B) a government organization or group in which absolute power is so concentrated

The Cuban dictatorship may be even considerably (as I acknowledge) more benign than some we could mention. You are of course even  free to argue that the USA is an effective dictatorship of the rich and powerful. Fine. But as I have said, what happens in country A) is not related to how it is in country B) and evil though country B) might be that does not justify not doing it right in country A).

Sorry if this is all too logical for some people who of course are happier with their convictions rather than actual fact.

• Greenland and the Arctic are melting and the process is accelerating. Melting water slips down the crevasses under the glaciers and lubricates them into acceleration into the sea. There seems on the face of it nothing happening to halt this. If the whole of Greenland’s ice melted, this alone would raise the sea level worldwide by twenty-three feet.

• Previously it was thought that a rise in sea level of this magnitude might occur by 2100. Now some scientists believe it could happen as early as 2050.

• Until recently, scientists believed that the Antarctic (which has FAR more ice than the Arctic and Greenland) was immune to the melting mechanisms occurring at the other pole: now they are realizing that this was a false assumption, as satellite measurements clearly show large areas of melting glaciers and ice there also. In this case, the problem is less water getting under glaciers than falling down crevices that do not reach to the bottom. As this falling water freezes it cracks the ice open and facilitates its movent to end up in the sea.

• The global climate is changing faster than at any time in the past 10,000 years.

• The 8 warmest years on record have occurred since 1998.

• In the past 100 years, sea level has already risen between 5 and 9 inches and it is still going up.

• There were more hurricanes in 2005 than in any other year on record, thought to be due to increased temperatures.

• Within the last decade, there were outbreaks of both malaria and dengue fever in the US as temperatures rise.

• Heat waves are gaining in intensity and frequency. Europe’s 2003 heat wave caused an estimated 35,000 deaths.

• Graphs showing global temperature rise and CO2 levels over millions of years show an eerie correlation – these stats are derived largely from examining drilled-out ice cores.

• There are sixteen million new cars on the road every year.

• Chins is opening one coal-fired power station every week.

• Most countries are actively seeking to exploit more fossil fuels where possible. As the ice-caps melt, even formerly inaccessible areas are in the line of fire, not to mention off Cuba and soon The Falkland Islands among others, not to mention vast shale-fracking in the USA. (which some have said will soon make the USA an oil exporter ….)

• 60% of the world’s population lives within 60 miles of a coast and will be severely affected both by rising sea levels and more frequent and powerful storms.

Strangely, GW has gone off the front pages recently. I believe this to be due to:

A) our preoccupation with the short-term and particular how much money we have – the most surreally hilarious aspect of which being Madame Lagarde (the well-known French stooge in the IMF) handing out the begging bowl to poorer Asian countries who are supposed to help bail out basically rich but idiotic Europe “for their own good” so that we can buy more cheap stuff off them

B) our low boredom threshold – we always need something new either to wear, to drink or to worry about – hence the success of marketers – not enough people care about next year, let alone the next century

Both A and B) are really the bleedin’ obvious, but some might not have grasped this even so.

And in another National Geographic prog comes the news that the once-pristine, searingly-hot but starkly-beautiful Sahara is becoming increasingly polluted to the point where many camels are dying though ingesting rubbish left by tourists and other visitors. This is of course eerily analogous to the situation in the oceans, where beautiful and totally innocent fish die through eating or becoming trapped in plastic and other materials.

Conclusion: Homo Sapiens is insane and does not deserve to survive.

Clarification: Not ALL men are insane, but the SANE ones aren’t doing enough to control the rest. Nothing new there, then.

Greece is bankrupt because:

The country LIED about its stats to get into the euro and one of the chief LIARS is the current UNELECTED PM, who was responsible as Governor of the Bank of Greece for preparing his country’s entry into the euro.

EVERYONE KNEW it was all lies but nobody CARED. (well, I did ….)

Germany and France almost immediately BROKE THEIR OWN RULES about debt.

They then did NOTHING as their banks lent INSANE AMOUNTS to Greece.

The EU (aka Germanay and France – the only ones who count) have now UNDEMOCRATICALLY removed the Greek PM and dumped an ex ECB/EU/Goldman-Sachs crony onto the Greek people to carry out its wishes – JESUS CHRIST, it’s like something out of the Nazi Gauleiter period.

This person has NO LEGITIMACY WHATSOEVER. Not only that, he is coming out with statements such as “This violence has no place in a democracy.” HE DOES NOT COMPREHEND DEMOCRACY

“Democracy”???

- NOBODY IN THE EU HAS VOTED FOR A EUROPEAN SUPERSTATE, yet this is their agenda. The EU is DESTROYING democracy. The people are treated with UTTER CONTEMPT. When the ELECTED Greek PM said he would take the proposals to a referendum of his people HE WAS SACKED BY THE EU.

- The Greek economy and middle class are being destroyed. Anti-German sentiment is very high (and NOT JUST IN GREECE); the EU itself is under threat.

- The people RESPONSIBLE for all this = the EU, Germany and France and the Greek political elite are now DICTATING to the Greek people what they (the latter) must do).

- As far as I am aware NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON IN THE EUROPEAN ELITE has been held accountable for this shambles. ON THE CONTRARY, one of the chief architects of it all has been made UNELECTED PRIME MINISTER OF HIS COUNTRY by an OUTSIDE ORGANISATION in order to enact the wishes of the latter, which are principally to A) save their banks and B) their UNMANDATED EUROPEAN SUPERSTATE PROJECT.

AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN IN THE FACE OF THIS FASCISM?

I am not sure you realize what a horrendous crime has been committed against the people of Europe.

One has to ask therefore what is the POINT of a future general election in Greece, since the elected parliament will not be able to decide on the most critical aspect of Greece’s future.

THIS IS THE WAY THE EU FUNCTIONS, just as they dumped the elected Greek PM in favour of a lying EU/ECB/G-S technocrat.

Of course, one might say that these written pledges have about as much valaditity as one of Brown’s predictions about “growth”. We’ll see.

Oh, and the cunning plan of Germany is that the Greeks won’t even SEE any of the bailout money. This will go DIRECT to the creditors so that none of it can disappear into the Greek economic black hole. Greece will still eventually default, but AT LEAST THE GERMAN TAXPAYERS WILL HAVE HAD THE PLEASURE OF PAYING OFF THEIR IDIOTIC BANKS THAT OVERLENT TO GREECE; Isn’t that comforting?

ONLY THE TAXPAYER is the loser. Now WHERE have I heard that before?

All of this is frankly disgusting and quasi-fascist, but most people don’t seem bothered much. England v France is much more important than democracy in Europe of course.

1) It’s only money – we can always print, borrow or tax more of it.

2) It’s not OUR OWN money, so the cost of anything whatsoever is irrelevant.

3) ergo (The GPB&BP is nothing if not logical) Any old ludicrous contract we sign mortgaging the future is irrelevant.

4) We must keep our chaps onside, so we’ll pay OTT to all civil servants, doctors, senior judges etc, including insane pensions and bonuses.

5) By the time this lunacy is found out, we’ll be departed on our index-linked pensions probably running some Brussels Commission or international quango as a “statesman”, or in Blair’s case giving speeches and advising people on how to lie convincingly.

WELL DONE LABOUR.   From “The Telegraph”:

Executives at Royal Mail, which is still publicly owned, could be in line for some of the biggest “performance awards” in the coming months. Last year, Moya Greene, the chief executive, was given £142,000 in addition to her £498,000 basic salary.

Ministers are thought to have been angered by the refusal of some senior Whitehall officials to waive their “contractual” right to bonuses this year. However, in many government departments, contracts agreed by the previous Labour administration are being renegotiated, giving the Coalition an opportunity to intervene. In several departments and public bodies, at least the top quarter of workers automatically qualify for performance-related payments. (Ed. WHATEVER THEIR “PERFORMANCE”)

One Whitehall source said: “Thousands of public sector workers now basically expect to receive a bonus every year regardless of how well they perform. “The whole system has got completely out of kilter. It’s about time it is addressed.”

It is understood that one area of concern is the payment of bonuses to doctors and other medical professionals.The Department of Health recently disclosed that some of its staff receive lucrative “clinical excellence awards” which are automatically paid each year. One Department of Health official received a payment worth £75,796 last year. More than 18 others received more than £35,000 each.

ARMS: The only reason the Indians preferred the Rafale is apparently becuse it has loads of weapons that the eurofighter hasn’t yet got (because we can’t afford them – a bit like the aircraft-carriers with no planes, which I at first thought was a joke) and though we promise it will have them by 2018 the Indians don’t believe us …….

WHIPLASH: The UK is apparently the whiplash champion of the world with 1500 claims per day, even though most cars now have head restraints and many of these claims are for “accidents” happening at less than 5 mph. In Germany, you cannot make a whiplash claim for any “crash” under this speed, though I suppose introducing this in the UK would simply mean that the criminals staging these accidents would only make sure the speeds were higher. Apparently the Transport Minister is “going to do something” about this ludicrous situation. Locking up for 10 years hard labour on the Mull of Kintyre a few of the fraudulent doctors certifying these whiplash claims might help. Where is Fatso Clarke when you need him? Probably working out how many prisoners he’s going to free before they’ve done half their sentence.

LIB-DEMS: One newspaper article claimed that more Lib-Dems would like to be like Chris Huhne. Well, at least politics is funny. Of course, he is innocent until proven guilty, but as far as MPs are concerned it might be more realistic to make up a new law saying that they are all guilty until proven innocent. I did note that Huhne is described as being “very clever”, which of course just goes to show tht cleverness per se can be overrated. And getting your wife to lie for you to the Old Bill and then unceremoniously dumping her isn’t really THAT clever, is it? Meanwhile, 100 Tories are revolting over absurdly-high subsidies to solar energy firms and Osborne comes out with this surreally-ludicrous piece of blue-rinse insanity: “We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business,” the Chancellor declared. “So let’s at the very least resolve that we’re going to cut our carbon emissions no slower but also no faster than our fellow countries in Europe.” How are the wind turbines doing in this weather by the way? When it snows do the blades fling off snow all around? Must be fun for the kids.

Oh, David Laws is predicted to return soon, public memories of stealing their money reckoned to last no more than a year or so (He resigned as chief secretary to the Treasury in May 2010 after it emerged he had used taxpayer-funded allowances to pay some £40,000 in rent to his partner.) No wonder Mandelscum was able to resign twice for wrong-doing but still get a plum job in Brussels and now return as a Lord. Can anyone name me ONE BENEFIT that has accrued to Britain for the 100,000 GBP plus and counting that is paid for Scummy to do his Lording? Just ONE?

The IMF (aka extension of the French Finance Ministry): wants billions more to bail out the euro and those nasty, evil capitalist Tories are trying to block this so the money can be spent on our own immigrants and aid to India. Pretty beastly. How selfish can you get? After all, the fact that A) the euro is based on lunatic economics, a pack of lies and an undemocratic obsession with creating a United States of Europe, B) the sooner it collapses so that it can be reformed the better and C) the UK is already as near bankrupt as Brown could manage is neither here nor there. What is Little Ed’s policy on this, BTW? I’m not up to speed on that, though usually it is whatever is opposed to the Tories.

MT: Oxford dons are apparently objecting to a new facility being named after the Iron Lady, even though that’s what the 15 million GBP donor wants. You must be well off if you are prepared to turn down vast sums out of political spite. And of course, the fact that the British electorate voted her in three times doesn’t count – anyone who votes Tory is perforce insane. Mind you, the same goes for Blair, so perhaps we ARE insane. On the other hand, a minority voted for Brown, so that diminishes the insanity quotient a tad.

RELIGION: Apparently, Bishops now feel it is now necessary to start a campaign for the right of people to wear a crucifix. How things have changed since the Spanish Inquisition. I can’t see any objection to crosses, as long as they don’t totally obscure the face of course. Ugly though some faces may be, I still feel one should be able to see faces of one’s fellow man – or rather woman.

SYRIA: The fascist regime now has the green light from two of the world’s other nastiest regimes to continue massacring Syrians. Next step is probably the carpet-bombing of the usual cities: Homs, Daraa, Hama – actually, just about anywhere. Time to feed arms into the country so the people can defend themselves – a bit like Cuba tried with Columbia of course, except that that was only to subject the people to more dictatorship. Which reminds me, what is Cuba’s take on the UN resolution? I must do some research.

CRICKET: The Pakistanis have clearly doctored the pitch as well as the ball. When we bat it turns and fizzes all over the place but when they bat it’s as docile as a sleeping cow. How do they do that? I have a large bet on KP getting out for under 10 runs. Not very good odds at around 5,000 to 1 on, but still pretty good value.

RUGGER: Murrayfield is never exactly a doddle even though the Scots are more fearsome with a claymore and haggis in their hands. So, well done to the untried, unknown bunch of youngsters who proved they can at least defend well. Didn’t see a lot of fizzing threes action though. Still, a win is a win by any other name.

Have a good day – let’s hope that by the end of it that A) the Israelis haven’t yet attacked Iran B) Assad hasn’t wiped out another city C) the Russians haven’t sent an armoured brigade to “defend Syria’s sovereignty” D)loads more Tibetan monks haven’t set fire to themselves in protest at the ethnic-swamping of their country by our major trading partners and E) various motley EU nincompoops haven’t announced that a Greek debt deal is nearly done – as it has been for the past two months.

Well, another event-filled day. I note that the ECC (Evil Capitalist Coalition) is planning to give more rights to fathers to see their kids. Long overdue of course, though 13 years weren’t enough for Labour to get around to it.

Minibruder has turned into a latter-day Wilberforce battling nobly on our behalf to rein in Fat Cat bonuses. This is despite the fact that the GPB&BP (Great People’s Binge and Bust Party) spent 13 long years (and it seemed even longer of course) removing regulations from banking, indulging in a surreal borrowing binge, ignoring the vastly-increasing wealth-gap including banking bonuses and EVEN (HILARIOUSLY) drawing up and signing the contract by which Mr Hester was to have milked up to FIFTY MILLION QUID from the public for rescuing the RBS – which of course has suddenly overnight metamorphosed into something nasty and horribly immoral.

Yes, throughout this entire period of Blair-Brown feuding, lies and incompetence, not one peep was heard from the now evangelistic Minibrain about any of it. No doubt he mightily approved of Mandelscum’s “I don’t mind if people get filthy rich.” What happened? Did he wander into a cave somewhere and have a vision from the Archangel Gabriel?

You only have to look at this cynical U-turn designed to catch the public mood and earn him short-term headlines as a true English dragon-slayer to see the shoddy, cynical, short-termism mindset into which politics has sunk. Or perhaps it was ever so.

BUT, there is wonderful news for the unintelligentsia. A Canadian “research” team has concluded that Conservatives tend to be less intelligent than those of leftish orientation. WONDERFUL. Some brilliant quotes:

Conservative politics work almost as a ‘gateway’ into prejudice against others, say the Canadian academics.’Individuals with lower cognitive abilities may gravitate towards more socially conservative right-wing ideologies that maintain the status quo.

Great stuff. Isn’t research wonderfu!! I must give it a go one day. But Conservatives of course will generally be too thick to understand “cognitive” and “gravitate” I do wish these people would use shorter words.

“The authors claim that there is a strong correlation between low intelligence both as a child and an adult, and right-wing politics.” The authors also claim that conservative politics is part of a complex relationship that leads people to become prejudices (sic).

BUT – and it’s a big one – fortunately, intelligent, non-prejudiced Conservatives and thick, racist Socialists have a get-out clause, since:

‘Clearly, however, all socially conservative people are not prejudiced, and all prejudiced persons are not conservative.’

WHEW! That’s a relief. This accounts for the idiocy of quite a few of those on the left. Strange how they all seem to herd together and end up in the GPB&BP!

There you go, Michael! Wonderful what a bit of “research” can come up with. I had doubted the value of research of course, but this is gripping stuff. I wonder if they got an EU grant?

FACEBOOK - in the news of course, and I was struck by this:

“People with low self-esteem who sign up to Facebook often end up over-sharing personal information and moaning, which irritates their existing friends, according to Canadian researchers.”

Indeed. People always moaning and irritating their friends are to be both excoriated and pitied simultaneously. Still, I do post the odd joke now and then, and anyway, this theory is only important if you have any friends to start with. But my gut instinct (sorry – no research; my gut is all you’ve got to go on) is that Facebook may soon peak as a passing fad. Everything has its day and eventually fades into the dust.

I note that this report is from Canadians once again. I didn’t know they were so much into research!!  Researchers on every corner so it seems. Of course, no Great People’s Binge and Bust Party, but you can’t have everything.

The Concordia sinking. Oh dear – the Captain’s woes continue. Just when his wife sticks up for him to the hilt it emerges that this dishy singer/dancer he had on the bridge while he was showing off his “How close can I whizz past the rocks?” skills was using the Captain’s suitcase to store her knickers in. Funny that – it looks such a big boat; you’d have thought they’d have more storage space. I wonder how wifey is going to react to this. “Don’t kick a man when he’s down.” Indeed – tell that to the drowned passengers trapped in their cabins far below deck.

Great headline in the Daily Grail: foreigners, welfare state abuse, landlords – all in one economical package.

“Latvian landlady with £1.1m property empire fleeced £33,000 in benefits after claiming she was unemployed”

Still, no doubt unresearched prejudiced rubbish – and it’s only money.

Chris Huhne? A double dose of good news of course:

A) One of the pillocks running the country bites the dust:

B) There is sometimes justice.

The problem for Cleggo is to find someone of Huhne’s calibre to replace him. I’ve sent the former a note, however. My old Gran in the Dementia Care Home has some time spare just now. And does this mean we get a break from vast taxes on energy to save the world unilaterally by building wind-turbines just when China is opening one coal-fired power stattion per week? I hope so.

Have a good day.

France: I feel like death warmed up, and trot round to see the Doc. He decides a variety of tests are required including a full blood analysis of the usual things plus others I’ve never heard of. I go down to the local analysis lab and have the test. Two days later I return to the doctor for a discussion of the three-page printout of the results and the necessary treatment.

Germany 1): I go to the doctor here about my son. He decides that two specific blood tests are required. A nurse draws off some blood more or less at once and takes it to the lab at the end of the surgery. We wait for 10 to 15 minutes in the waiting room and get called back to discuss the results with the doctor. He tells me that one of the tests is negative but I should call back the next day to see about the second.

Germany 2): I fall down the cellar stairs pushing a heavy trolley which catches me a heavy blow in the ribs. I laugh it off but after a few days it is as bad as ever and more painful. I see the doc and he does a full scan of my chest with some fancy contraption in his surgery (many doctors even have X-ray machines on site), informing me that I have a large lump of congealing blood just under the skin which will not go away on its own and requires surgical removal. I also learn that the internal wound has not leaked into the chest cavity but that he can see rather too much fat around the liver …… he tells me I need a minor operation and should go the same day round to the hospital, which I do. At A&E, I wait 20 minutes and see a specialist who confirms I need this minor op. to to remove the blood, but though urgent it isn’t critical and can wait till the next day. I return the next day, wait about five minutes, then the anaesthetist explains the procedure and gets me to sign a form allowing them to put me under, which I do. Then I get undressed, onto a trolley, get an injection, fall asleep and wake up with a fresh scar. Five or six days later I return to have the stitches removed.

Germany 3): Last year I decided that I might be suffering from stress, an amazing bit of self-diagnosis which I will no doubt be told off for. At the Doc’s, he put a load of sensors all over my torso and head and hooked it up to some sort of computer. I had to lie there for 10 to 15 minutes, whereupon he came back, did a printout and looked at it. He told me I did have a somewhat high – but not alarmingly so – stress-level, but that he couldn’t be certain that this was abnormal for me. He told me it was no real cause for concern; blood pressure and other things were OK. He gave me some mild calmant or whatever (I forget exactly what) and told me to come back in a week’s time to do the test again for a comparison. He also asked me why I thought I might be stressed and the ensuing discussion lasted about 10 minutes, during which he gave me some practical advice about stress management.

How does it go over there in the UK?

Some excellent facts and stats from “The Daily Telegraph” today. “Stats”? Yes, we all know the soundbite, but as it happens, I am right off soundbites after the Blair years. Actually, statistics tell the truth, as long as you know and trust the source and how the stats were collected and prepared. Anyway, the reporter is Andrew Gilligan. Will he do?

I summarize the key points from the above article:

Even as it grapples with the financial crisis, the European Union is paying almost £25 million this year to subsidise the trips, arranged through MEPs.

The BNP, which has two Euro-MPs, has made heavy use of the scheme to thank some of its most prominent members at taxpayers’ expense. One BNP official boasted that it was “a good way of rewarding our activists” that “didn’t cost the party a penny”.

The trips are ostensibly “study visits” to the European Parliament buildings in Brussels or Strasbourg, but the holidaymakers need spend only a fraction of their time at the parliament to claim the full subsidy, which can be collected in cash without the need for receipts.

• One subsidised trip to Strasbourg last week, promoted by the Labour MEP Peter Skinner, lasted six days, with only a few hours spent at the parliament. The rest of the visit, according to a programme seen by The Sunday Telegraph, included a river cruise, a tour of the cathedral, a visit to the city’s Christmas market, champagne tasting, a battlefield tour in Ypres and sightseeing in Reims. Like most MEPs, Mr Skinner did not join the party, but hosted a free dinner for the participants. The cost of the six-day trip, including some meals, all accommodation, tours, coach and ferry, was £272. If booked directly, the hotels alone would have cost about £500 at this time of year. One of those who went on the trip, Juan Leahy, who works for Mr Skinner, declined to comment when asked if it was mostly a “holiday”.

• One BNP trip, in March last year, cost taxpayers €10,791 (£9,775) for 44 participants, an average of £220 a head. It was free for those who took part, according to the organiser, Mr Butler, and even made the BNP a profit.“The subsidy is for a set amount,” said Mr Butler. “There is no provision to pay back what you don’t use. The organiser of the trip can use any residue for whatever he sees fit: this is quite legitimate.” Mr Butler said he had donated the profits to the BNP.In a report last month, the Court of Auditors, Europe’s spending watchdog, criticised this aspect of the scheme, warning that “the procedures in place do not require groups to provide evidence of travel costs, resulting in a risk of overpayment as most groups use cheaper collective transport”. The subsidy for the journey from London to Brussels amounts to £85 a head, but Eurostar offers a return ticket for £69, and travelling in a privately hired coach can cost as little as £25. According to the Court of Auditors, 78 per cent of the payments to trip organisers last year were made in cash. This “limited the possibility of applying internal control procedures”, the watchdog warned. Mr Butler defended the visits, saying: “Everyone had fun and it didn’t cost the party a penny. The trips are a good way of rewarding our activists for their hard work and dedication. Should we feel guilty for the Euro taxpayer? Certainly not.”

• The European Parliament declined to give the number of British participants in the trips, but figures for the last available year, 2007, show that British visitors claimed €938,000 (£600,000) in subsidies.The cost of the schemes for all 27 EU nations this year is €29.7 million (£24.9 million), a 40 per cent rise since 2007. As Britain’s share of the EU budget this year is 12 per cent, taxpayers are contributing £3 million to the programme. The parliament said that better controls on the payments would be too “complex and time-consuming”.

The current state boundaries exist through historical accident, and of course on occasion design – but not a design based on anything rational but that of conquest.

It is outrageous that a state can claim ownership of territory where other people live who do not want to belong to it. The Basque Country, Barcelona and many other areas should long ago have been given independence, if that is what the people living there want. What is more important, the “state” or individuals who have the right to a degree of self-determination?

It is also outrageous that some countries have a ludicrous amount of wealth from under the ground while others have none. All the planet’s resources should be shared out, just as the air we breathe is.

It is not the Gibraltarians’ fault that for a long time Spain was fascist, nor that during this time they got used to sorting their own affairs out thankyou very much. Nor indeed is it their fault that for much of the post-Franco era the Spanish state has been bullying, malicious, self-righteous and downright nasty towards the people of Gibraltar.

What the Spanish state should do is be nice and neighbourly and open up the border so that in time Gibraltar and Spain will be like Germany and Holland – no border crossings, gradual economic and eventually in a saner world political integration.