Spain has 8.000 kms of coastline, so why do they want to fish in our three kms, asks Fabian Picardo, the Gibraltarian Prime Minister as tensions ratchet up between Spain and The Rock. Already, Gibraltar has been the excuse for the Queen of Spain not attending QEII's 60th Jubilee and now the Spanish press is in an uproar after Gibraltar has called on the Royal Navy to escort Spanish fishing boats, based out of Algeciras, out of their territorial waters.
Algeciras, La Línea and Gibraltar have been uneasy neighbours since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, but business must and has gone on, to the mutual benefit of all three towns. Spanish policy regarding Gibraltar is not, of course, based on local realities.
So, just what Spain needs, a piece of chauvinist nationalism to skirt away from the current financial and banking disasters and to crank up some tension...