Sep 25 - Chief Minister’s Address Introducing The Gibraltar Lecture At Blenheim Literary Festival
Full text of the speech given by the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo to introduce the “Gibraltar Lecture” at the Blenheim Literary Festival:
Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you so much for joining us today at Blenheim for this annual Gibraltar lecture.
Many of you will know Gibraltar for its important strategic role in historic conflicts.
For centuries we have been the Mediterranean home of the Royal Navy.
An impenetrable fortress at the confluence of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
Today, with a joint forces command, we remain a geo-strategic asset of Her Majesty’s Government.
As our soon to depart Governor, Sir Jim Dutton says, we are a thousand miles "up-theatre" to the middle east, where so many of today's conflicts and crises have their epicentre.
This morning, HMS Ambush, one of the United Kingdom's most sophisticated nuclear powered submarines, has sailed into the Bay of Gibraltar to spend a few days with us.
Yet, we are so much more than just a strategic military asset. And today's lecture is a useful opportunity to reflect that. Our history is as a garrison and fortress. But our future is not to be confused with our impenetrable city walls. We are the opposite, in fact.
We are an open and modern European city that is home to a community of British Gibraltarians who see themselves as partners of the United Kingdom in the defence of British values.
Although, of course, being "a thousand miles up theatre" helps to make the weather in which we defend those British values much more generous!
In fact, by being here at Blenheim, by having adopted a literary festival of our own, we are demonstrating that Gibraltar is much more than just "Britain in the Sun."
But, having said that, I must tell you that the eponymous Channel 5 programme works wonders for our tourist bookings!
And why am I telling you these things when introducing a talk about the Navy in the Second World War?
Well because of there two particularly relevant links between what happened then and the lives we in Gibraltar and you in the UK live today.
The first relates to the military operations undertaken in Gibraltar at the time of the Second World War.
To allow for those operations, all civilians who lived on the Rock and who were not able to bear arms, were removed from Gibraltar.
They were described in correspondence between Gibraltar and London as "useless mouths" who would get in the way of the use of the Rock in war time and its defence in the event of an Axis attack.
That evacuation of the Gibraltarians occurred seventy five years ago this year and is what facilitated military activity we will hear about shortly.
The subsequent return to Gibraltar of those evacuees is what led to the creation of the modern Gibraltar of today.
A modern, connected and, most importantly, a British Gibraltar.
Modern in our outlook and understanding of the world in which we need to be competitive in order to survive and thrive.
Connected in technological and telecommunications terms as it is essential to be, especially given our online gaming industry is the largest in the world.
And British. Not just in the quaint serving of "fish and chips".
Not just as one of the safe harbours for Ambush, Astute and other avante garde, futuristic MoD assets, including, I hope, the new aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales.
But also in the European sense.
And let us not forget that a united Europe, like the United Nations, is one of the spoils of the Second World War.
So many died to create the opportunity of a Europe at peace. A Europe at work and not at war.
We may have different visions of whether a united Europe is best represented by a single market or by European political union.
But we must not forget what a fractured Europe can lead to.
And so a few moments ago I had the chance to hear the views on the EU of the Prime Minister during his interview earlier this afternoon.
The people of Gibraltar share his views on reforming the EU. We share the view that the EU can be improved for the benefit of all of its citizens.
And we support his attempts to gain support from the nations that today make up the Union to shape a better Europe for our children.
Because we do not want to turn our backs on the fruit of the War won by the men we are going to hear about now.
Because Minister for Education Gilbert Licudi, has just inaugurated the University of Gibraltar; to pool our intellectual wealth and collaborate with the intellectual wealth of other nations, not to turn our backs on them.
And all of these matters relate back to the success that Allied Forces made of the defence of the Rock during the last Europe-wide conflict.
And so, that is why we have a treat in store now with the work which Professor Lambert is going to share with us.
Andrew is a professor at King's College in London and the author of a number of books on maritime history and the Royal Navy.
He has tutored at the University of the West of England, the Royal Navy Staff College and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
He is also a noted broadcaster.
Professor Lambert will focus on some of the key events involving Gibraltar and its naval base. These included the sinking of the Bismark, the disabling of the French Vichy fleet at Mers-El-Kebir in July 1940 by a British fleet from Gibraltar; relief convoys to Malta from Gibraltar, particularly Operation Pedestal in August 1942, which broke the siege of Malta; and the planning of Operation Torch the invasion of North Africa – by General Eisenhower in Gibraltar in November 1942 when the general became the only non-Briton to be appointed Commander-in-Chief, Gibraltar.
I am unfortunately required to return to the Rock tonight and will not be able to stay for the lecture in order to make it in time for my plane at Luton.
I leave you, however, in excellent hands.
Pic: HRH The Duke of Gloucester, Royal Patron of Friends of Gibraltar, the Chief Minister and Prof Andrew Lambert
{fcomment}
