A selection of the best articles about politics, business and life on the Rock from the last seven days.
First a sincere apology – the curse of the New Statesman (which, to be fair, we’ve only just made up) has struck. On Monday we wrote a piece on why Gibraltarian football was important, so with a certain inevitability, all our fault, on the same evening there was this game against Poland. The Irish Independent is of course as independent as its title and we believe they will have taken no pleasure at all in announcing the 8-1 win (to Poland in case you were wondering) – but guys, it’s another goal!
More happily, as readers of our weekly feature will be aware, it was Gibraltar National Day on Monday and the Local among others made reference to it. Meanwhile it will be no surprise at all that Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was among those people sending best wishes to the Queen as she became the longest standing British Monarch, and by extension the longest running Gibraltarian monarch too.
Those were great days for looking back; looking forward, albeit by less than a fortnight, the University of Gibraltar’s inauguration and subsequently its first courses are imminent. The Gibraltar Chronicle has been writing about this and the New Statesman has been talking to the education minister on the subject – check the Gibraltar hub on Tuesday to read the first part.
Speaking of reading stuff, we often quote the Olive Press in this bulletin and we note it’s going to have a Gibraltar edition on the 16th September.
Finally, we’re becoming quite fascinated with singer Paloma Faith. Just before the Glastonbury Festival she told a crowd off for not knowing the words to her songs or singing along – and sitting on the sort of chairs she’d reserve for her granny. She’s now been to the Gibraltar Music Festival and kicked off with a rousing “Hola Espana” and told everyone how excited she was to be singing in a place that was half English, half Spanish, says the Independent.
Gibraltarians are mostly quite proud of their British roots, and the country’s been British since before America was occupied by white people. No doubt someone’s made that clear to her now – and explained why, according to the Independent, the crowd was actually booing until she apologised.