{"id":453128,"date":"2026-03-02T05:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453128\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:40:12","slug":"gibraltar-clings-to-british-way-of-life-as-fence-to-spain-comes-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453128\/","title":{"rendered":"Gibraltar clings to British way of life as fence to Spain comes down"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 300 years the Rock of Gibraltar has been the stone in Spain\u2019s shoe, a tiny \u00adterritory with an epic history, its siege mentality grounded in endless battles over sovereignty.<\/p>\n

But suddenly, finally, the ground has shifted in Spain\u2019s favour and 40,000 Gib\u00adraltarians are warily weighing up what the future holds for the character of their uniquely British-infused way of life. A treaty, published last week after years in the making, puts the territory between a rock and a hard place.<\/p>\n

Weighing in at more than a thousand pages, the treaty between the European Union and the UK will in a few weeks result in the dismantling of continental Europe\u2019s last wall, as the Spanish foreign minister, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares<\/a>, described the fence erected a century ago when Gibraltar was still first and foremost a British military base.<\/p>\n

\"Foreign<\/p>\n

David Lammy, when he was foreign secretary, with Fabian Picardo in 2025<\/p>\n

BEN DANCE\/FCDO<\/p>\n

It \u201cparks\u201d the sovereignty issue (Spain has not relinquished its claim, which under Franco led to the border being closed for 15 years) while bringing Gibraltar within Europe\u2019s Schengen zone, permitting free movement of goods and people \u2014 at a price to which the territory was previously adamantly opposed.<\/p>\n

This boils down to Spanish boots on the ground<\/a>, an affront to Gibraltarians born and bred with an instinctive \u00adanimosity to their neighbours. While Gibraltar\u2019s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, was at pains to play down the \u00adSpanish police presence, characterising it as a few officials \u201cbehind glass\u201d at the airport, Albares countered that \u201cnational police officers will be clearly visible, in uniform, as is the case at any airport where they enforce Schengen regulations\u201d, adding that they would have the final say in permitting entry.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Gibraltar border checks: what is changing for British travellers?<\/a><\/p>\n

Other red lines appear to have been crossed. Residency, for instance, in all probability will in the future require Schengen, that is to say Spanish, \u00adapproval. And Gibraltar must immediately adopt a \u201ctransaction tax\u201d \u2014 for which read VAT to align with Schengen. The rate will be 15 per cent, rising to 17 per cent in three years.<\/p>\n

This will be extremely painful, said Owen Smith, chairman of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses. \u201cIf you are importing goods from the UK, but those goods are manufactured elsewhere, as many goods from the UK are, you will pay a 12 per cent EU tariff on top of the new transaction tax. So we\u2019re talking up to 30 per cent by the time you factor in transport costs and packaging. That\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u00a8What we\u2019re going to lose is what makes \u00adGibraltar unique, which is that we are a British overseas territory. We have British names on our high street, British products in our shops. We have a UK three-pin plug in our wall and all of those things I think are under threat. Exactly how that fact is going to pan out is not really fully \u00adunderstood at this juncture.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s lots of very worried people out there. We are British citizens, and people don\u2019t want to lose that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The border crossing between Spain and the Rock of Gibraltar<\/p>\n

FRANCISCO J. OLMO\/EUROPA PRESS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Erika Pozo, an accountant who is eyeing a run at next year\u2019s elections<\/a> to the \u00adGibraltar parliament, shares the generally accepted view that Brexit has forced her beloved homeland into \u00admaking dangerous compromises. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe dismantling of the border fence will be celebrated by many in Spain as a \u00adsymbolic victory, reinforcing their longstanding sovereignty claim,\u201d she said. \u201cI have to say that personally I will feel less British and less secure than I once did. The most crucial point for me is the reality of having Spanish officers \u00adoperating at our entry points and on the ground in Gibraltar, however limited or technical that role may be. Many, \u00adparticularly the older generation who lived through periods of hardship and tension, will struggle with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Main Street is the duty-free hub of Gibraltar<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

On Gibraltar\u2019s bustling Main Street, the pubs and Union Jack bunting \u00adconvey a festive feel \u2014 but nobody is celebrating. \u201cWhat can we do? We don\u2019t have a strong hand any more and we have to survive,\u201d said a senior civil \u00adservant who wanted to remain anonymous. \u201cI don\u2019t trust the Spanish, they\u2019ve \u00adalways treated us very badly but I am old enough to remember when the border was shut and those were very hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet amid the fears of a mainly older generation there is also a thread of \u00adindifference to encroaching Spanish authority. James Barton, a 27-year-old entrepreneur who operates three \u00adrestaurants, is looking to the future. \u201cI am personally looking forward to the disappearance of the border, for ease of travel to Spain which we all like to do, there\u2019ll be no more queues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Main Street in Gibraltar<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

He has no qualms about Gibraltar losing its identity. \u201cEven though it has many Spanish aspects to it, the social identity is extremely strong,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you see all the referendums that have happened, it\u2019s always overwhelmingly voted to stay British. There\u2019s never a doubt, you know, if you ask any \u00adGibraltarian; we\u2019ve always been proud of our Britishness, and we \u00adcelebrate it. So I don\u2019t think that will change any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

To alleviate the gloom Picardo was pleased to announce that Gibraltar would soon have 20 more red pillar boxes, more red telephone boxes and more black London taxis. \u00ad\u201cGibraltar is going to feel very British indeed,\u201d he said, beaming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 300 years the Rock of Gibraltar has been the stone in Spain\u2019s shoe, a tiny \u00adterritory with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-453128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}