‘Poundland Pinochet’ Michael Howard thinks UK should declare war on Spain over Gibraltar
[Gibraltar cartoon by Brian Adcock, via Twitter.]
Here he is in the Torygraph, banging his drum:
Lord Howard, the former Tory leader, has said that Theresa May would go to war to defend Gibraltar’s sovereignty. He said that Theresa May would show the “same resolve” over Gibraltar as Margaret Thatcher did over the Falklands.
He told Sophy Ridge on Sky News: “There is no question whatever that our Government will stand by Gibraltar.
“Thirty five years ago this week another woman prime minister sent a task force half way across the world to defend the freedom of another small group of British people against another Spanish-speaking country. I am absolutely certain our current Prime Minister will show the same resolve.”
Theresa May, the UK’s current unelected Prime Minister, failed to mention Gibraltar in her Article 50 letter to European Council President Donald Tusk.
This prompted the EU to insert a clause into the response outlining that Spain – which has a long-standing territorial claim on Gibraltar – would be given a veto over the Rock’s participation in a future deal.
The BBC appears to be trying to present a balanced view of an unbalanced situation, saying the Tory-run UK government would “stand up” for Gibraltar after Spain was accused of using Brexit to further its own territorial interests.
Apparently, “After reported lobbying from Spain, the EU’s Brexit negotiation strategy is that decisions affecting Gibraltar will be run past the Spanish government”.
With war as the fall-back option?
In fact an armed response may not be legally possible, in any case:
Lord Howard taking on the Might of Europe apart from fact you cannot declare ward on a member of NATO stupid man, stupid tory, stupid brexit https://t.co/kkdNj3Y8vd
— Isobel_Waby we NEED a COALITION (@Isobel_waby) April 2, 2017
Twitter has responded to this latest Brexit nonsense in its usual style:
within a few days of signing article 50 already on a war footing with Spain, (will France lend us some boats, planes, tanks, etc.) https://t.co/U4eCSB8bxo
— Isobel_Waby we NEED a COALITION (@Isobel_waby) April 2, 2017
Well that escalated quickly..Lord Howard tells Sophy: PM wd show "same resolve" re Gibraltar as Mrs T in Falklands: pic.twitter.com/OqsJQWSzzK
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) April 2, 2017
England expects that every man will do his duty. And destroy the Spanish Armada!!! https://t.co/LQuTB1Acay
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) April 2, 2017
Brexit.. War with Spain, what kind of person supports the Tories.. For God Sake..
— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) April 2, 2017
Brexit = Hard Irish border, Welsh Farmers V NZ farmers, War threat with Spain, Scottish independence vote, 18% drop in £ & soaring prices.
— Paul Flynn (@PaulFlynnMP) April 2, 2017
Gibraltar seems to have come as a total surprise to the Brexiteers. Expect more surprises as they clearly haven't a clue what they're doing.
— Tim Walker (@ThatTimWalker) April 1, 2017
Wonder how the Falklands-style sabre-rattling from British Nationalists will affect existing attitudes towards UK citizens living in Spain?
— Paul Martin (@PWMartin_Leith) April 2, 2017
https://twitter.com/pauljholden/status/848511041306624000
24 hours before a YouGov poll claims majority want this and an Evening Standard feature on conscription sorting out 'the bloody young' https://t.co/HU6Fvl8OVR
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) April 2, 2017
We always feared jingoistic talk of "punishment" & "war" would be the Brexit way… prob from tabloids. But from senior Tories this early?.. https://t.co/z6neQcBbHj
— Scientists for EU (@Scientists4EU) April 2, 2017
https://twitter.com/TheMendozaWoman/status/848662788360876032
And then there’s this, from the British comic 2000 AD:
We're not saying we predicted the *whole* future but all of a sudden the mention of Gibraltar in Calhab Justice seems a little on the nose. pic.twitter.com/DnUhUE2vMm
— 2000 AD Comics (@2000AD) April 3, 2017
Is it worth reminding everybody that Gibraltar voted to stay in the European Union?
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I can see where you are going on this Michael. Declare war on Gibraltar, then Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Better include Europe when they won’t play ball. In fact we can show the world what we are really made of, we will re establish the the empire. Would you like another sherry Michael.
on the backs of the citizens of the uk././ not those with loadsa cash sitting in high places.is this another tory idea to deplete the numbers of poor people yet again? send them as cannon fodder as in ww1 and 2?
Such a totally irresponsible statement should surely warn people against employing Tory ministers. In any case we took Gibraltar by force in a war and geographically it obviously belongs to Spain.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Mapa_del_sur_de_Espa%C3%B1a_neutral.png
…and Michael, look at the way we are crucifying the disabled, we are no pushover…. Shall I make it a large sherry Michael.
What a pity this evil man didn’t think before uttering such rubbish. He should realise that the EU was formed to stop European countries going to war with one another.
Presumably he thinks that declaring war is OK as we are leaving the EU?
Presumably we should be thinking about another referendum knowing that such war mongers are still alive and close to the seat of power.
it is normalised tory speak now, they don’t actually know what there saying so they just say anything without really understanding what there saying, they need to start retiring fossils and useless ministers, they also don’t need ones with 2nd jobs, they cannot concentrate on being a MP as it is, so why should they have second jobs,then again the evening papers might actually be more funny when bad news comes out for tory, we might see some real news for once
Howard, of whom there is something of the night, is typical of the stupid, moronic idiots who support the nonsense of Brexit. Just days after Article 50 the loathsome idiots are baying for war – knowing of course that it will not be them who are maimed for life or killed.
Yet another “Lord” who has not got the brains of an an amoeba and obviously well past his sell by date. These type of unhelpful verbal outbursts do not represent any value from his attendance at the House of Lords.
of you Go Howard Lead by example, take Boris, bring a ex army mp with you, take some more MP’s that will take up the sword, we all cheer as you travel to Spain carrying your M16 and showing the world how brave your going to be.
When you have woken up from the reality of what your saying perhaps you might need to think do you need testing to see if your mentally stable, perhaps take some of your clones with you as well, a wca assessment will probably do, they get that wrong all the time so you might be okay, there is plenty of space on the ex brexit bus, that could be renamed the tory loony bin as nothing that comes out of it makes sense