The Foreign Ministers of the important countries are involved in high level world politics, in an attempt to bring peace to troubled regions and burying old hatchets.
The USA has taken steps to normalize relations with Cuba and now the UK with Iran.
And what does the most Foreign spanish Minister do?
Incapable of anything else other than to appear foolish, he continues to tiresomely and obsessively cite the Treaty of Utrecht causing embarrassment to his country.
He has been tearing around the UN trying to dismantle the tripartite forum, but shamefully the part that remains outstanding of the Cordoba Accord is the return of the Spanish Pensions! Another half baked endeavour without finishing the job!
With such a penchant for dismantling agreements but not returning the goodies received, there is the little matter of the Treaty of Versailles, that given his advancing years he seems to have forgotten about.
Before he can get to the Treaty of Utrecht, he keeps forgetting that under the Treaty of Versailles, Gibraltar was exchanged for Florida and Menorca in the 1780s, something that continues to slip his amnesic mind.
Before he can get to the Treaty of Versailles, he would also need to dismantle the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas!
So it seems he has a lot of tearing around to do before he can cite the Treaty of Utrecht!
He thinks he has dismantled the Cordoba Accord but keeps the Spanish Pensions, and has not come up with any ideas of how he is going to return Florida and Menorca!
Tut tut tut is it possible to be any more unintelligent and irrelevant?
Yours faithfully,
Isabella Caruana-(Montegriffo)
26-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Gibraltar exhibits at Cannes yachting festival
August 26, 2015
The Gibraltar Maritime Administration ('GMA') will be attending and exhibiting at the Cannes Yachting Festival from Tuesday 8th to Sunday 13th September, as part of its sustained effort to promote the benefits of the Gibraltar Yachts Registry as a reputable and attractive register in the yachting industry.
The Cannes Yachting Festival has established a reputation for attracting the most prominent maritime companies in the industry and has long been known as a global showcase for the presentation and promotion of a wide diversity of yachting products and services.
As one of Europe's leading in-water yacht shows, the Festival is one of the main international events in the Superyacht and Megayacht nautical calendar in Europe.
At this year's event, Diana Soussi Avellano, Registrar of Yachts will head a team of GMA representatives at the event. The GMA will host a stand featuring Gibraltar's maritime services and is an excellent forum for attendees to network and learn about developments in the industry. It provides an ideal opportunity for the GMA to discuss, with key industry players and the general public, the complete package of benefits that the Gibraltar Yachts Registry offers to yacht owners.
Albert Isola MP, Minister for Maritime Services, commented, "The Cannes Yachting Festival is 'the place to be' in order to network with yacht owners, builders, financiers and agents. A British Red Ensign and EU Member State yacht Register, Gibraltar is considered one of the highest-quality flags for pleasure and commercial yachts of all sizes, offering the complete package for owners. Maintaining a marketing presence in events such as this generates interest in the Gibraltar-registered fleet, which continues to grow year-on-year. We are totally committed in our support to the maritime sector and to driving more business here."
26-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
GONHS remain entrenched in their minority view
August 26, 2015
Dear Sir,
GONHS takes note of your article 'Going Baloney About Balloons' of the 24th August with interest and concern. In particular, the article expresses inaccuracies that require clarification.
We should say, first of all, that GONHS has in fact been making representations to the Government on an annual basis since 2006. Steps have indeed been taken to decrease the environmental impact of the release and our statement was not intended as criticism of the SDGG. On the contrary, the SDGG, like other volunteer organisations in Gibraltar, is run by extremely committed volunteers who work tirelessly to improve Gibraltar and its community. However, the fact is that even the more 'environmentally-friendly' balloons can have a serious impact on marine life in particular and we feel that more should be done.
The comparison of "little Gibraltar" with other countries would pretty much diminish any environmental effort that Gibraltar makes, or indeed that of any individual around the globe, when in fact precisely the opposite is true: environmental initiatives should be driven by individual responsibility. In this sense, Gibraltar must surely rank very high in terms of the number of balloons released per capita. This is of special concern because the Rock is almost entirely surrounded by the sea, where the impact is likely to be greatest.
Your article mentions that the majority of the public is in favour of the balloons being released. Specifically, it states that "...to date, the feedback received is overwhelmingly in favour of the balloons being released". This is an extraordinary claim from a newspaper that is currently running an online poll on the subject, the result of which shows that on August 24th, 74.64% of those who had voted were against the release. Indeed, the feedback that we have received so far suggests that opinion is quite divided on the matter, but that a large number of people support our view that the balloon release should be replaced with something that more properly reflects Gibraltar's position as a modern, responsible and environmentally-aware community.
GONHS takes umbrage with having been labelled "sectarian" in your article, a word with very negative connotations and which - by any definition of the word - does not describe GONHS' mission statement or modus operandi. However, we are certain that this must in fact, have been a grammatical error and we would therefore ask your newspaper to publish a correction, highlighting that GONHS is not a sectarian group and that it was not the intention of your newspaper to label our organisation as such.
Your article rightly highlights that it is the Government of Gibraltar that must govern. The Government will have to make a decision on this that takes into account environmental best practice and Gibraltar's responsibilities with regard to the natural environment. It must also assess whether a release of balloons is the only way that the entirely non-trivial issue of our identity can be expressed. We are sure that there must be more imaginative and cleaner ways to achieve this.
Yours sincerely,
GONHS Council
SAYS PANORAMA: For a 'scientifically' minded people, it should be obvious that an online poll is not scientific. Besides, there has been a partisan promotion urging the public to vote against the balloons. You might wish to clarify your mistake.
26-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
New night bus service connects north to south
August 26, 2015
People attending from the fair will now be able to take a bus home until one in the morning as part of a new pilot scheme launched in conjunction with the Sustainable Traffic Plan.
Two night bus routes will run from around nine at night to one in the morning from Wednesday until Saturday during the duration of the fair, National Week and on Summer Nights, with the scheme to be continued on weekends after this time.
"As something that the public has shown a very keen interest for we will operate as a pilot scheme to find out what the public take up is," said Minister for Traffic Paul Balban. "We will be concentrating on the area which is the biggest night spot, Ocean Village, with it being a paying service of two pounds per person with children under eight travelling for free.
"People can understand that to put on such a service in the evenings at weekends is a very costly affair but if you think that two pounds is the price of any of the fair attractions we feel it is a reasonable price to take you home safely."
Route N8A will go from Blackstrap Cove between Caleta and Sandy Bay all the way past Ocean Village, the hospital and Queensway as far as Rosia Parade coming back along Line Wall Road on its way back to the beaches. Alternatively, punters who want to get to any destination between Ocean Village and Europa Point via Queensway would take Route N8B.
Costly
Each night bus service will run every hour with people expected to both flag the buses down and press the buzzer for every stop, their continued use due to be reassessed in winter if public usage decreases on Fridays and Saturdays.
"This is not an exact science so even though we have done tests on the service already, we will be tinkering with it as we go along," continued Balban. "We have a very good taxi that offer a door-to-door service especially suited to big groups of people whereas the bus will take you roughly where you want to go."
The routes, which will have disabled access, will take 45 minutes and 55 minutes respectively to complete although with the closest stop to the frontier being at Referendum House.
Balban said the service would start at 9:15 and 9pm on the evenings it was running: "We will be reviewing this because what we don't want is for the first night bus to be following the last night bus when it goes live as this is the reason why we first stopped the night-tabling."
The only difference between the day and night buses is that those operating in the evening will have a perspex screen as well the CCTV cameras present on all such public vehicles, recording every part of the bus with ID card access to them planned for the future.
As Minister Balban reminded us, the complement of around 50 staff manning 26 buses is subsidised by the Government, "because even at £2 a shot there's no way you can pay for drivers working overtime from nine to around two in the morning after they've done all their checks".
Meanwhile, as part of other comments for the Sustainable Traffic Plan, people will now be able to be able to catch the No.1 bus where Flat Bastion Road meets Prince Edward's Road as opposed to having to go all the way up to the Astoria or Arengo's Palace.
26-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Resurfacing of runway next month
August 26, 2015
The airfield runway resurfacing project is due to start on the 11 September, with some preparatory works commencing from the 4th September onwards, says Command British Forces.
These works are essential to ensuring the future safe operation of the airfield, maintaining RAF Gibraltar as a forward mounting base for Defence and a civilian airport for commercial flights, helping to ensure Gibraltar's continuing economic development.
A statement adds: This will be the first full resurfacing of the runway in over 20 years and the project is expected to be complete by the end of January 2016.
Despite the additional project costs it incurs, a decision was made to conduct all works overnight between the hours of 10 pm and 10 am to allow the airport to be fully operational throughout the day in an attempt to minimise disruption to flights. Disturbance to local residents due to the noise of these night works is unfortunately inevitable, but it will gradually reduce as the project progresses.
The public should also be aware that additional cleaning of the runway will be required during this period and this will cause restrictions to traffic and pedestrians using Winston Churchill Avenue. Access to Winston Churchill Avenue is likely to be severely reduced between 9 am and 10 am in particular.
*Further details, including the traffic management plans for Winston Churchill Avenue, will be released nearer the time.
"We apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused," said HQBF.
26-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
The multi-million pound investment backed by James Gaggero that went wrong
August 26, 2015
The Welsh Minister for Economy welcomed the news by the Bland Group that its subsidiary Universal Engineering Ltd, the internationally renowned precision engineering innovator, is creating 200 new jobs at a new centre of excellence in Llantrisant, South Wales. That was back in February. The gloomy news is now that the company is in administration and the Welsh Government is expressing disappointment.
The multi-million pound investment was backed by £2million business finance from the Welsh Government to support the creation of 200 new jobs. Another factory in Weymouth has also been facing problems.
Universal Engineering's chairman, James Gaggero, had said in better times: "We are energised at the prospect of engaging with the highly skilled workforce in south Wales in building our capabilities in this sector."
Already in June, a report in the Dorset Echo said that jobs were at risk. Redundancy had already taken place.
The news comes after the company failed to secure contracts for work or contracts ceased.
A statement said: "The company can no longer continue to sustain the losses it is making and has reluctantly come to the decision to commence consultation."
With workers then on the way out, the Bland Group parent company said it was a "sad day" for the company and extended their sympathies to the workers affected.
An irate comment said this was once a very healthy company. "None of the so-called directors live closer than 200 miles away; so they have no stake in the either the town, the workforce, suppliers or customers.
"The demise of the Weymouth sites has nothing to do with the "economic conditions in the defence sector". That's just an attempt to deflect responsibility. You don't see BAe, GKN, AW making redundancies and closing plants. The empty order book is due to customers deserting the company in droves..."
It was alleged the Management team worked 3.5-4 days a week for salaries of £100k - £150k a year, (in a company losing £4M a year) plus the bonuses, cars, healthcare, luxurious pensions etc etc.
Chairman James Gaggero met with staff in Weymouth to tell them the bad news and said the company would work with the administrators to try to find a solution.
"It's awful to have to accept that circumstances have conspired to make this business vulnerable to this situation," he said, as the BBC reported.
The company was set up in 1959 and taken over in 2009.
The chief executive of parent company, Bland Group UK, added: "We deeply regret having to take this decision. We appreciate that this will be a very difficult time for all employees and we will try to provide as much information and support as we can during this process."
Universal said it had received a £600,000 first stage of Welsh government money in March 2015 on condition of a specified number of staff being hired and was at "pains to stress" the money was safe.
The Welsh government added: "We are in discussions with the company about recovering the finance we provided them to create jobs."
When you tried to contact the company yesterday, a sign said: "Website closed."
26-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Video evidence shows Spanish firing 4 shots in Gib boat incident
August 26, 2015
Video evidence shows that the Spanish SVA vessel fired 4 shots in the area within British Gibraltar Waters where a Gibraltar boat was fishing legally on Saturday. It is also alleged that what appeared to be bricks were hurled at the two local occupants of the boat.
The chief minister Fabian Picardo yesterday evening described the incident as "an extremely serious escalation of the repeated incursions of British Gibraltar sovereignty."
A Government statement said that HM Customs have been ordered to actively challenge any future incursions by Spanish SVA vessels.
Meanwhile, there was no response from several telephones we rang up yesterday evening to find out what The Convent was doing about this serious matter, perhaps they are on summer hours and are not to be disturbed! We thought there was no point of waking up anyone in the Foreign Office, they might just repeat that appropriate action is being taken which, in the past, has meant doing next to nothing.
The Spanish foreign minister Sr Margallo has reiterated that the waters that surround Gibraltar are Spanish, as if he is the principal judge in the International Court of Justice, and has threatened with continuing with the incursions of what are, in fact, legally British waters.
It was on Saturday afternoon, when two men on board a Gibraltar registered pleasure boat reported to the Royal Gibraltar Police that, whilst fishing well inside BGTW, four pistol shots had been fired in their direction by the crew of the Spanish Customs vessel (SVA) 'AGUILA IV.'
BOARDING ATTEMPT
The Spanish vessel had first ordered the pleasure boat to stop its engines but when this was not done, the AGUILA IV circled the pleasure boat. Its crew also attempted to board the pleasure boat which took evasive action. During this time, the shots were fired by the SVA crew apparently into the sea near the boat and objects which they believe to have been bricks were allegedly thrown at the local men.
After the boat contacted the RGP, the police launch, Sir Adrian Johns, which was in the area quickly made its way to the scene. An RGP officer boarded the boat when they got to it and escorted it to the Gibraltar Government Marine Station, (GGMS) at Gun Wharf. The RGP continue to investigate the incident.
MEETING AT NO.6
The two local men have now met with and spoken at length to the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister and described the details of the whole incident. They have fully cooperated with the RGP. There is no suspicion that they were doing anything illegal. They had all necessary fishing permits.
Later, the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said: 'This is the third incident involving the SVA in as many weeks. This illegal incursion by the SVA into BGTW represents an extremely serious escalation of the repeated Spanish violations of British-Gibraltar sovereignty. There is no "law enforcement" excuse this time.
INNOCENT LIVES AT RISK
"Investigations confirm that shots were fired by the SVA at the innocent Gibraltarian pleasure boat. The Spanish authorities have, therefore, put the lives of innocent Gibraltarian civilians at risk. These actions are criminal offences in Gibraltar. Solely by being in the area, the SVA boat was in violation of treaties and the International Law of the Sea.
"Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar will not tolerate, under any circumstances, the intimidation or harassment of Gibraltar vessels in BGTW. We are working closely together with the UK Government so that necessary and appropriate action is taken to counter this unacceptable threat.
"For our part, the Government of Gibraltar has changed the posture of Her Majesty's Customs Department at sea such that any future SVA incursions are actively challenged by vessels of HM Customs, who are their counterparts in Gibraltar.
"Proper cooperation remains our aim. The sooner the Spanish authorities adopt a similar cooperative posture the better.'
26-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Waiting for a fatal accident
August 26, 2015
Dear Sir,
One thing is for sure regarding these illegal incursions into our British waters, the British Government under no circumstances will take any visible action against the Spanish Government until a fatal action occurs!
But then of-course the family of the victim will be the sufferers for the rest of their lives and the British Government would just send a letter of condolence to the family and that would be the end of the affair.
Is this really what the British Government want?
Yours faithfully,
Solomon (Momy) Levy
PS God forbid if this were to happen I wonder what effect would have on the Gibraltarians?
26-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR