Sep 12 – Chief Minister’s National Day 2016 Speech
This is a text of the speech given by Fabian Picardo during the National Day political rally in Casemates:
Every year you look better and better dressed in red and white!
Once again you fill Casemates with colour like you fill our nation with life every day.
And let's remember that it is not just those of us who are here who are celebrating.
There are Gibraltarians and friends of Gibraltar celebrating this day around the world.
From Australia to the Americas.
From Hong Kong to Hawaii.
Today, where there is a Gibraltarian there is a party!
And so let us remember all those who cannot be with us today but who are watching and let me greet them directly through television with you.
Hello and happy National Day to those of you watching us from Calpe House, our home away from home in London.
Hello to those of you watching at home in Gibraltar or abroad, or from St Bernard's Hospital, or Mount Alvernia or Old St Bernard's and Ocean Views.
You are all here in our hearts.
And I also want us to say thank you to together those of you who are celebrating without a loved one who is on duty in the Royal Gibraltar Police and the GDP, the GHA, the Elderly Care Agency and Social Services, at Customs, the BCA, the GEA, the Fire Services or the Port or in any other of our essential services or in journalism or the culture agency.
Those are the people who make this day run like clock work with months of hard work preparing for today.
To them all and to their relatives: thank you.
Let me start by adding my welcome to those visiting us from other Parliaments in the UK and from the European Parliament.
Thank you for returning to Gibraltar or coming for the first time to see our celebration of our identity as a distinct people.
It is now almost 25 years since we first celebrated a National Day.
We started National Day to celebrate our choice to remain British in the referendum of 1967.
And we continue National Day to assert our right to choose to remain British.
And in London today, the Gibraltar flag is flying over the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to celebrate with us.
And I can also share with you a message from the British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, who has written to us on the occasion of our National Day.
His congratulations says this:
"On this Gibraltar National Day, I want to emphasise my resolute support for Gibraltar and its people. We will continue to stand beside Gibraltar and the double lock commitment on its British Sovereignty.
Gibraltar’s National Day is a fantastic celebration of the history, vibrancy, and success of the Rock. It also marks the first momentous occasion when you, the people of Gibraltar, clearly voiced your wish to remain British. I am proud of the long standing role you continue to play in the British family.
Happy Gibraltar National Day!"
And from the Labour Party, Emily Thornberry sends her congratulations for our national day, confirms their commitment to the double lock on Sovereignty and expresses solidarity in respect of what happens after ‘Brexit’.
And it is true that we are facing a big test after the Brexit decision.
We are facing potential challenges that can damage our economy.
But together, united, we can overcome those challenges.
We will all have to work harder, go further and do more.
But we will.
Because we owe it to our children to do so.
There will be challenges.
There will be set backs.
But always remember that we are the Indomitable
the Unstoppable
the Unconquerable people of the Rock.
We did not choose Brexit but we will deal with Brexit
Like our forefathers dealt with the Evacuation 75 years ago and the return of our people to our Rock.
Like we dealt with the modern siege of the close frontier siege.
Like we deal with every obstacle and hurdle put in our way.
Every challenge some think will destroy us has only ever made us stronger.
My friends, this is just another challenge that we will take on together.
And if anyone thinks that we are going to sell our homeland for access to Europe, they don't know the Gibraltarians.
Look up at our beautiful Rock.
That is our backbone.
I don't see a "For Sale" sign anywhere on it!
Those who keep talking about taking our sovereignty just don't get it.
We have told them that Hell will freeze over before Gibraltar becomes Spanish.
And they don't get it.
We have told them that they need to wake up and smell the coffee, Gibraltar will never be Spanish.
And they don't get it.
We have told them that no means no.
And still they don't get it.
Why can't they just get the message?
Well let me put it in terms that even they might understand:
If Brexit means Brexit
Then British means British
No means No
Never means Never
Gibraltar is British Forever
And that's for keeps!
And we will emerge from this time of uncertainty
A bolder, prouder, stronger nation
The red and white nation of the Gibraltarians
Red white and British
Red white and Proud
Red white and Free
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