The battle for Gibraltar

Tensions have blown up once again between Spain and Britain over Gibraltar. What’s behind the latest spat? Simon Wilson investigates.

Is this all about fishing quotas?

It has virtually nothing to do with quotas. The proximate trigger for the flare-up was Gibraltar's decision to build a concrete reef off the Rock. Gibraltar's government says it is to protect fish stocks, but it has the not-so-coincidental side effect of stopping local Spanish fisherman from trawling in disputed waters (Madrid insists the Treaty of Utrecht see below gives no territorial waters to Gibraltar, except for the port harbour). But the number of Spanish fishermen affected is tiny fewer than ten, say some reports.

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.