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Unlikely Euro bid links Gibraltar and Northern Ireland
By Macer Hall
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A BIZARRE plot to make the rock of Gibraltar part of Northern Ireland has been uncovered.
The dependent territory, whose residents have long campaigned against sovereignty claims from neighbouring Spain, will have to become part of a UK mainland constituency after winning the right to vote in elections for the European Parliament.
The Rock's population is not large enough to warrant an MEP of its own so has to merge with mainland to share a representative in Brussels.
Now members of the Ulster Unionist Party are lobbying for Gibraltar to link up with their province by claiming a kinship rooted in history and a shared experience of conflict.
Lord Kilclooney, a senior member of the UUP, said: "Northern Ireland is the part of the UK with which Gibraltar has the closest relationship."
"During the Second World War, many Gibraltarians were evacuated to Northern
Ireland and that means many were also born there."
He added "It would be happier in a rural constituency like Northern Ireland
where we have a number of similar problems, especially our relationships
with the government in London and the fact that we both have neighbours who
want to take us over."
Peter Caruana, Gibraltar鈥檚 chief minister, said: "We had to fight long and
hard to gain recognition of our right to vote.
"Frankly, we would be content in any constituency that recognises our right
to vote for the Brussels parliament. Which one it is not so important."
But nationalists in Ulster oppose the plan. Alban Maginnis, an SDLP member
of the Northern Ireland Assembly, said: "It would be geographically absurd
and politically bizarre."
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The Rock in question |
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Stormont |
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