Despite the excuses made by our politicians in their National Day messages, there is no doubt that Gibraltar remains a colony striving for self-determination. The movement in that direction has been hijacked by those who want no change or see an inability to achieve it.
The evidence is clear, our leaders keep attending different UN bodies seeking that our right to self-determination be recognised; that alone is an admission that we have not yet achieved a self-determined status, however much the 2006 Constitution may be described as having given us that level of self-determination that we can aspire for now.
Certainly, the powers retained by the UK in the 2006 Constitution contradict that we have achieved decolonisation, however kind the UK is publicly in using, and however reticent it is to use, those powers. It would be interesting to know, in fact, what happens behind closed doors, considering the mere existence of these restrictive constitutional powers.
WHAT IS SELF-DETERMINATION
The 2006 Constitution retains to the UK more than sufficient power to interfere, so we have ‘external interference’, which are inconsistent with self-determination. The most extreme being the UK’s right to make laws, including amendments to and revocation of the Constitution, but, more particularly, on external affairs, defence, and internal security.
In brief, self-determination is the right to freely determine our political status, and to practice freely our economic, social, and cultural development without external interference. Those powers retained by the UK constrain our freedom, and so deny us self-determination currently. Our leaders now and historically ignore that in all their statements, messages, and acts.
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