Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - 09:38 Leo Olivero

‘Already we’re a Nation of Heroes’

There’s no doubt, the whole of Gibraltar is playing its part in generally keeping all of us safe during the current emergency. Admittedly, there are a few nitwits still having a personal battle in adhering to what all us have now accepted as a temporary but essential situation involving huge adjustment to life, including the suspension of our constitutional and basic rights as citizens!

It was reassuring on Saturday to hear the Chief Minister in his Easter Message describe as a message of hope and explained ‘how all the tough measures that had been imposed were for a very good reason and how there were having the required effect’.

The CM, said he understood ‘how difficult and frustrating for the citizenry to be obliged by the Government to remain indoors and how the government was conscious they are depriving us of close and loving contact with loved ones’.

Mr Picardo, sounded empathic, when he said he was ‘committed in ensuring that the measures should not last a minute longer than necessary and that the imposition of the controls on the people’s freedom of movement was a permanent scar on his heart and constant strain on his conscience. And that the Cabinet, we are already seeking to work on appropriate exit strategies to lift the restrictions imposed as soon as possible’. Gibraltar’s leader, also recognised he did not have the answers yet. Which was not a surprise, as no else in the world, in his position, has any answers either?

Life Transformed by Exceptional Powers Handed to the Police

The CM alone, should not be the only politician to feel this way or say these words. All Parliamentarians, should openly recognise what our small nation is living through and how daily life has been totally transformed under the exceptional powers handed to the police.

In Gibraltar today, people have been criminalised for going so many metres from their house without an adequate excuse. It is also where some idiots have failed to take note or have not heeded police warnings, and are now badged with a criminal conviction.

Our democratic credentials include having the right of assembly and the right of free movement which has been temporarily removed from us. Such limitations, must be just that…temporary!

"While there is a widespread recognition that the need to suppress the spread of the coronavirus pandemic justifies the laws introduced in the short term, the impact on all our lives is deeply profound".