True Brits

摘要

Patriotism is a risky credo in modern Britain, liable to be confused with xenophobia or worse. In any case, many Britons are unsure about what, in a post-imperial world, they have to feel patriotic about. Passionate intensity about British-ness is most evident in a few satellite communities clinging tenuously to the mainland: Ulster; the Falkland Islands; and, most peculiarly, Gibraltar, a Lilliputian colony at the southern tip of Iberia. Like many petty disputes, Gibraltar, with its 30,000 inhabitants and tribe of Barbary apes squeezed under and on to a gigantic limestone rock, has inspired centuries of rancour. Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in 1713, and has been trying to get it back ever since. As the two countries are now European and NATO allies, their feud over Gibraltar has become an embarrassing diplomatic inconvenience. The two governments are currently trying to conjure up a sovereignty-sharing formula that will satisfy Spanish pride.