TAUNTON TA1 1RE

UNITED KINGDOM

2 July 2019

The Hon. Fabian Picardo QC, MP

Office of the Chief Minister
No. 6 Convent Place
GIBRALTAR GX11 1AA

Dear Chief Minister

I hope that this letter finds you well.

I am writing with regard to the petition for Gibraltar to be represented in the House of Commons, to
which you and the Deputy Chief Minister added your signatures. Far from being a source of
encouragement or reassurance for me as someone who has expressed support for this in the past,
your decision to sign it has been more a source of confusion and concern.

Some politicians in Gibraltar have felt a need to pay lip service to this issue, even if they do not
actively support it. In 2008, your predecessor told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs
Committee that he would ‘love’ Gibraltar to have some sort of representation in both Houses of
Parliament, but this seemed to be for UK rather than domestic consumption.

At no time has any MP in Gibraltar, or indeed any public figure, who has signed this petition
explained why they think this is a good idea. The only people to have done so are members of the
Representation at Westminster Movement, whom I can only describe as their own worst enemies,
even though one of them has been a good friend of mine for many years.

My nickname for them is ‘Dad’s Army’, not simply because they are old, but because they are so
inept, though unlike the TV series, watching them has been more painful for me than entertaining.
Rather than this being a case of lions being led by donkeys, it is more one of sentimentalists,
cowards and timewasters being led by well-intentioned incompetents.

That no one who signed this petition has come forward and contributed to this movement, by
offering new ideas, skills, funds or leadership, illustrates why it should not be taken seriously. What
are they afraid of? Death threats or attacks on their property? Or being unfriended on Facebook
and unfollowed on Twitter? J E Triay would be laughing at them from his grave!

One charge made against those who voted ‘Leave’ in the 2016 referendum is that they did not
know what they were voting for. This, however, is a case of people not knowing what they were
asking for. At the risk of being cynical, I think that most in Gibraltar only signed it for the same
sentimental reasons as they did an earlier one calling on the Queen to visit them.

In addition, while not wishing to be an intellectual snob, few in this movement have any real
knowledge of political history, constitutional law or international relations, and have made little or
no effort to acquire any. When Joe Caruana talked about Mayotte, a far-flung island in the Indian
Ocean under French sovereignty, as a model for Gibraltar, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

They have few arguments, only Pollyanna slogans like ‘nothing to lose and a lot to gain’ and
‘nothing worth fighting for comes easy’, while many of those they do have are just silly. For example,
they claim that Gibraltarians have a right to this because of their British citizenship, and that it is to
compensate for Gibraltar losing its representation in the European Parliament!
Ironically, while all but two MPs sponsoring Craig Mackinlay’s Private Member’s Bill to give Gibraltar
representation in the House of Commons support Brexit, and a ‘no deal’ one at that, Andrew
Mackinlay, the first MP to introduce such a Bill back in 1997, has been so consistently opposed to
Brexit that he has now left the Labour Party and joined the Liberal Democrats.

Unfortunately, Joe Caruana has for years canvassed the support of Eurosceptics in the UK, in both
the Conservatives and Ukip, at the expense of those of other political persuasions. While members
of the Representation at Westminster Movement may not be pro-Brexit themselves, and should not
be made to feel guilty by association, I cannot help but feel that they are naïve.

The last intellectual heavyweight they had was Maurice Xiberras, with whom I was in regular contact
up until his death over two years ago. However, I was less than impressed by his claims that there
were private discussions with the Attorney-General about integration, devolved integration,
additional representation or whatever it’s being repackaged as nowadays.

I appreciate that politicians everywhere hold their cards close to their chests and change their
position when circumstances change, as we have seen with Brexit. However, given that you are
dealing with a petition, not a referendum result, you should not feel obliged to act upon it, and
should feel free to disavow it, even if some people may feel let down, if not betrayed.

As I reminded one of those people, you and other MPs in Gibraltar are representatives, not
delegates, and you betray them, not serve them, if you sacrifice your judgment to their opinion. It is
not enough for these petitioners to tell you what they want, they should explain why they want it,
and more importantly, why I and others in the UK should agree to give it to them.

Indeed, despite their desire to be represented in the UK’s Parliament, some of these petitioners
have such a misplaced sense of entitlement, or what you recently called the ‘a mi me pertenece’
mindset, that they forget that the UK has rights as well, one of which is the right to say that it does
not want this, and that includes members of the Parliament in question.

I have had previous experience of campaigners who argue that the details should be left to the
politicians, which is arrogant and disrespectful. Granted, political decisions will ultimately be taken
and implemented by MPs, ministers and civil servants, but I think that they respect, if not fear,
campaigners who have presented strong arguments and compelling evidence of their own.

Sadly, these petitioners have presented neither, and nor do they inspire either respect or fear, and
by signing their petition, you may have painted yourself into a corner or raised false hopes.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Westmoreland