Spanish newspapers have already shown their displeasure.
Sir Alec will spend a day on the Rock at the end of September. In Gibraltar, the visit will be regarded as a propitious occasion to bring out the flags, no doubt as spontaneous as ever, with the red-white-and-blue message of " We are staying British " becoming perceptible to Sir Alec from the moment he steps down at North Front airfield, a few hundred yards from Spanish territory.

In the short-lived days of the so-called " new climate " the airfield was recognised by the Foreign Office as offering a possible compromise to get the Spaniards off their high horse, as they had voiced the opinion that the land on which the airfield is built was not ceded to Britian under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

MORE IN PANORAMA PRINT EDITION

17-02-21 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR