April 26, 2019 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
04:48
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Hello folks, welcome to what I guess is a dispatch from Gibraltar. | |
| I've been here for a couple of days. | |
| I've been canvassing and leafleting and talking to the people and I've honestly had a genuinely wonderful time. | |
| What you can see behind me is Morocco. | |
| Spain is just over there and the rock is just there. | |
| I actually would have filmed Facing the Rock, but from where we're at at the moment, the university is just behind us and it's being renovated. | |
| And so it didn't look as good as, I think, looking out to the sea. | |
| But it's been very interesting and everyone here has been wonderful. | |
| Nobody's had any kind of adverse reaction to us or the UKIP flag or any of the flyers have been giving out. | |
| It's been amazing. | |
| Because it seems that the people we've spoken to and we've asked them what they think is generally representative of the population at large. | |
| The people we've spoken to seem to be remainers in not in principle, but for pragmatic reasons, because they're so closely connected to Spain, even though they do have a hard border here, of course. | |
| In principle, they seem to agree with us that Britain should be a sovereign country. | |
| Whether this means anything is obviously beside the point, who knows? | |
| But it does seem that they're very concerned about the lack of patriotism in Britain, and they think that we should be patriotic, and they are particularly patriotic. | |
| There are British flags everywhere, as well as Gibraltarian flags, which is fantastic. | |
| So you've got the local and national representation. | |
| And everyone is just very, very relaxed, very calm, and very welcome to very open to have a proper debate, which is why it was so surprising when Gibraltar's first minister, Fabian Picardo, decided to call me out on Twitter and virtue signal to those in Westminster. | |
| Fabian, you socialist, I'll be in the town centre tomorrow, casemate square, 3 p.m., and I'll be taking questions and debating with literally anyone who comes by, because that's what I think a politician should do. | |
| Actually represent the people. | |
| Come down and talk to me, you moral and intellectual coward. | |
| I did an interview with the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation, which is the local branch of the state-funded media here. | |
| And they were very surprised to hear what the media in London are doing. | |
| They have a very strict and rigorous code of ethics and an overseeing regulator. | |
| So by law, they have to remain as neutral and impartial as they possibly can. | |
| And when I told them about some of the things that have been happening back in Blighty that they weren't aware of, they were rather concerned. | |
| And I think that the interview they gave me was fair, and I hope to see as much of it reproduced as possible. | |
| Because again, I think I was laying out my positions very, very clearly. | |
| Overall, I've had an absolutely amazing time here. | |
| This is just honestly incredible. | |
| And it is with great annoyance that I discovered today that in 2015, the Independent reported that Jeremy Corbyn would simply give Gibraltar to Spain if he had half a chance, as well as the Falkland Islands, or as he termed it, Las Malvinas, to the Argentinians. | |
| Now, I personally completely disagree with this in principle and for pragmatic reasons. | |
| But what really bothers me about this is I was raised as a forces brat. | |
| I was raised on military camps, and you can imagine that there were a few British flags around, and there was a great it was an unsaid amount of patriotism. | |
| You didn't need to say that it was a good thing to be British, because obviously, why else would you have been fighting for Britain? | |
| And to hear Jeremy Corbyn say that he would just give these away, I found personally morally reprehensible, absolutely disgraceful, because in 1967, Gibraltar voted against joining Spain at around 98%. | |
| And then in 2002, they had another referendum to decide whether they were going to get independence, which again, they voted against by about 98%. | |
| Now, that is the kind of ringing endorsement for Gibraltar remaining British. | |
| I can't even imagine how you could argue with this. | |
| How you could say, in any way, shape, or form, that you were representing the opinions of the people who actually live here. | |
| I can't see how you would say that you represent the opinions of the people here if you would just give it away at a moment's notice, casually, as if you had a duty to give this place back to Spain or to give the Falkland Islands back to Argentina. | |
| And I just want to stress that the Argentinians have never owned the Falkland Islands. | |
| It was an uninhabited island that was claimed by the Spanish Empire. | |
| The only population that has only ever been British, and they want to remain British, just like the Gibraltars. | |
| And we have a moral duty to ensure that their democratic wish is respected. | |
| Gibraltar will never be Spanish, at least as long as you vote for UKIP. | |
| I hope you've all enjoyed the campaign that we're running as much as I have. | |
| And thanks to everyone who's taken part. | |
| It's been amazing. | |
| We'll see you all back in Blyse. | |
| We're not going to stop winning. |
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