Wednesday, January 5, 2022 - 10:02

Whatever difficult challenges come our way, our bonds with the UK will remain unshakeable, says Dr Garcia

NEW YEAR MESSAGE
by Deputy Chief Minister and Leader of the Liberal Party
Dr Joseph Garcia CMG

The traditional Christmas and New Year celebrations will have been very different for most of us this time round. Many will have exercised greater caution, gathered in reduced numbers, shielded the elderly and the vulnerable and prayed that next time round we will be free of COVID-19.
The year 2021 has sadly been a challenging one. Governments and peoples all over the planet have continued to endure the serious public health effects of a global pandemic coupled with the harsh economic consequences that this has brought in its wake.

GLOBAL PANDEMIC
The loss of life has been tragic. Five million people across the planet including one hundred of our own fellow citizens are no longer with us.
No elected Government in our history has had to deal with the a pandemic on this scale. The ultimate responsibility for dealing with the Spanish Flu, which took hundreds of our people after World War One, was one primarily for the British colonial authorities who were then in charge.
Tough and unpleasant decisions have been required in the last twelve months and more will be needed going forward. This is what leadership is all about. When such decisions could have an immediate call on life and death they assume altogether different and much more significant proportions. Indeed, when Gibraltar last went to the polls in October 2019 who would have predicted the future that lay in store for us all in the two years or so that have elapsed since then?