Britain's national decline has just reached a new low
It's probably for the best that the Cypriot government has shown no interest in getting its hands on Akrotiri and Dhekelia, the United Kingdom's two 'sovereign base areas' from which the RAF flies for operations in the Middle East.
For judging by the conduct of this Government, it is currently open season on our overseas possessions. Fresh from bending over backwards to hand the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius – with a dowry – the Government is now preparing to hand Spain a 'special role' in Gibraltar.
This will reportedly include 'new powers over the issuance of residency permits, visas and asylum', according to the Independent, as part of 'an accord to settle the post-Brexit border arrangements for the British overseas territory.'
How far we have fallen. When General Franco closed the border with Gibraltar in 1969 as part of his effort to besiege the Rock into submission, both it and we stood firm. The blockade was eventually lifted in 1982, after Spain's return to democracy. Today, faced with a far less menacing prospect, we have simply folded.
This is not merely a collection of objectionable new procedures, either. If this deal is passed, Madrid will now control who is and is not allowed to settle in Gibraltar, whilst Spaniards – because it is part of the Schengen area – have freedom of movement.
It isn't difficult to imagine how this could erode the Rock's British character over time, especially if a future Spanish government was playing an active role in the process. Because we should not forget that Spain absolutely wants its hands on the territory and is not shy about flexing its muscles; Spanish ships not infrequently violate Gibraltar's sovereign waters.
As over Northern Ireland, we have once again allowed the EU to insist that the interests of its common market trump the political and territorial integrity of the British state and its dependencies.
It is very difficult to imagine many European countries doing the same. Consider Madrid's steely refusal to compromise on its own Gibraltars, the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the Moroccan coast; or France, which proudly staged parts of the French Olympics in that most lovely part of their country – Tahiti.
Indeed, watching Britain get bullied from pillar to post over our overseas territories it is sometimes difficult to remember that Paris has quietly got away with holding on to French Guiana; France's longest land border is with Brazil.
Gibraltar's British status would be vastly more secure had we taken the French approach. But when the Integration With Britain Party won the 1969 Gibraltarian elections – held in the shadow of Franco's belligerence – Westminster said no.
Perhaps what we're seeing today, then, is simply the final triumph of the Foreign Office mindset which refused Gibraltar then, and Malta in the 1950s; a mindset which views overseas possessions not as assets but as expensive and vaguely embarrassing entanglements. What a pity we can't muster the same national self-belief as the French. Or, indeed, the Spanish.
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