GSLP-Liberals-Manifesto-2019

Personal message from
Fabian Picardo
My dear fellow Gibraltarians,
These are difficult and challenging times for our country.
The international political background against which you are
going to decide who should run Gibraltar in the next four
years has never been more complex. But the choice you
face is a simple one. Do you return to Government those of
us who have been successfully running our nation for the
past eight years, or do you take a risk and instead gamble by
betting on one of the teams opposing us?
I know you will not want to take the slightest risk with
our nation’s future. You will not want to take any risk
whatsoever with our children’s well being. You know that
we are the team that has kept Gibraltar secure in these
turbulent times and that we are the safest choice for your
family in this election.
It has now been eight years since you first entrusted us
with stewardship of our small but proud Nation. You were
impressed with the work we did in our first term in office and
you resoundingly renewed our mandate to work for you. In
the past four years we have worked even harder to continue
to deliver on our commitments to you whilst dealing with
the political tsunami that Brexit represents.
Now, I want to tell you a little bit about our exciting and
excellent plans for the next four years and about how our
track record in the last eight years is your guarantee that we
will deliver on our promises to you.
A DEEP SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY
Everything we are saying in this manifesto is said with
the deep sense of responsibility that comes with the
privilege of being ‘handed the keys to Convent Place’. That
is a responsibility that cannot be taken lightly. Being in
Government - in Gibraltar in particular - is not a game. It is a
serious responsibility that can affect the life of every citizen.
Working day and night with my team of ministers, making
decisions every day that affect the livelihoods of thousands
of us, often on a knife edge and on the basis of facts and
developments beyond our control, being any Minister of
Government and, indeed, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar,
requires one thing above all: that deep sense of responsibility
and the seriousness about discharging the obligations of the
highest elected office in our nation.
Since I called the General Election I have been saying that
now is not the time for novices or has beens. Now is not the
time for political experiments or political spent forces. Now
is the time for tried and tested. I am saying that for a reason
and out of a sense of responsibility.
There has never been a moment in the modern history of
Gibraltar when the choice of political leadership has ever
been more important. It is because of the very particular
circumstances in which we find ourselves as a result of
Brexit. That is why the choice you face this year is as stark as
it is simple. A simple choice in a complex world.
In this election you of course have the right to choose the
WRONG people for the job, but you have the responsibility
to elect the RIGHT people for the job, and that means
choosing the GSLP Liberals.
MANAGING THE ECONOMY,
DEFENDING OUR INTERESTS
There are two key objectives for any government in
Gibraltar. The first is to ensure the successful management
of our economy, powering the growth and, therefore,
progress for our people. The second objective should be to
combine the successful management of the economy with
a strong, mature and responsible defence of our interests
on an increasingly complex international stage. We have
delivered on both of those two key objectives in the past
eight years. We have done so despite the head winds we
have faced. The first from the aggressive tactics of the PP/
Margallo in Spain. The second from the many dilemmas
we have had to deal with given the ongoing convulsions
of Brexit.
BREXIT
We are all tired of talking and hearing about Brexit. I am
being totally honest with you when I say that Brexit has
been the single hardest thing I have ever dealt with in the
whole of my life. It has literally been my ‘Hell on Earth’ in
politics – and it is not over yet. Dealing with Brexit there
are no rules other than that the rules are changing daily.
Key players in the Brexit saga have come and gone. No less
than three Prime Ministers and four Foreign Secretaries
and DeExEu Ministers in the UK and two Prime Ministers
and three Foreign Ministers in Spain, and counting. With
every changing of the guard we have had to deal with a
wholesale change in approach. We have had to start almost
from scratch to develop new key relationships with new key
people. We have done so and these are the relationships
which have held Gibraltar in such good stead. Those
relationships are not just with politicians. They are also with
the officials who work in each of those key departments in
London and Brussels.
For Gibraltar Brexit is by no means a zero sum equation. We
have had to make difficult strategic decisions in the context
of the ever shifting sands of the relationship between the
UK and the EU. We have made those decisions with only
the best interests of our nation and community at heart.
We have never even thought of what worked best or worst
for the GSLP Liberals. At every point of decision we have
put our country before our parties. I would not be able to
...aspire to the best Gibraltar
5