It has a population on a par with Newton Abbot, but Gibraltar is truly a cultural melting pot united by the desire of its residents to remain British.
The Rock is named after the moor Tarik ibn Ziyad who took the Rock in 711. On the break-up of the Moorish empire, Gibraltar became part of Castille.
In 1704 the British took the Rock during the War of Spanish Succession.
In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht ceded the "Rock of Gibraltar to the Crown of Great Britain in perpetuity".
It is very difficult to argue the meaning of this very clearly drawn up clause and it is on this foundation upon which Gibraltar has developed over the last 300 years.
Over the following century Britain developed the Rock as a strategic military base with a wide range of Mediterranean nationalities living there.
It is this cultural mix in two and a half square miles of land which has made Gibraltar what it is today. Walk along Main Street and you will see buildings with Georgian sash windows, Genoese shutters and wrought ironwork from Birmingham gracing the balconies.
The main square is called the Piazza (Italian), not the Placa (Spanish).
Men wearing skullcaps walk along the road chatting to muslims in djellabas and take tea with their Roman Catholic friends just out from mass in the Cathedral.
There are two synagogues, a mosque, Roman Catholic and Anglican cathedrals and Methodist, Baptist and Church of Scotland chapels. All in a place with the population of Newton Abbot!
Centuries of toleration have produced one of the most successful multi-cultural communities in the world which has developed within a framework of British administration and British way of life.
Look in the telephone directory and you will find MacKenzies next to Levys next to Garcias next to Browns. And you will find that Mackenzie's grandmother was probably a Levy and Garcia's great-great-grandfather was probably a Brown!
English is the official language and the local dialect, called Llanito, is a mix of English and Andalucian Spanish often intermixed with English in the same sentence.
The Gibraltar Chronicle is the oldest English language newspaper in the world. The legal system is English.
It is hardly surprising that the Gibraltarians are so British and are determined not to become part of Spain in any way.
They have been British for longer than Spain has been Spain.
Gibraltar is internally self-governing and a full member of the European Union.
It is in the interests of Gibraltar, the United Kingdom and Spain to talk about the future sensibly for the economic and social benefit of all concerned. But Spain will not talk to the Gibraltarians.
They still consider The Rock to be an old-fashioned colony and want their former piece of territory back.
The United Nations Charter of Human Rights state than every peoples has a right to self-determination, whatever form that self-determination might take.
In the 2002 referendum 98.5% of the electorate voted against joint sovereignty with Spain on a 99.5% turn-out. Oh that there could be such interest in elections over here!
Gibraltar costs the UK nothing in financial terms.
It has full devolution and has a budget surplus. Only the naval base is under direct rule from Westminster.
In this 21st century it is people that matter and not territory. The pluralism of being British stretches from England to Wales, to Cornwall, the Channel Islands, the Falkland Islands and the Seychelles. These are people that feel a shared national identity which walks hand in hand with their individual roots.
The continual sniping from Spain is rather like the levante cloud which casts its shadow over the top of the rock semi-regularly.
Sophism is the use of specious arguments intended to beguile or deceive others and Spain uses this form of diplomacy too often with regard to its neighbour.
It is to be hoped that Spain will mature and start moving with the times.
Most thinking young Spaniards are not the slightest bit interested in this tiny lump of rock which is closer to Africa than most parts of Spain.
The recent Cordoba agreement which saw the beginning of joint ventures was a big step in the right direction.
To a large extent the current problems are simply the newly elected right wing Partido Popular in Spain steering interest away from its own country's dire economic problems.
The Gibraltarians are as solid as their rock. With the current Conservative/Lib Dem coalition sporting identical policies on the sovereignty issue they should be able to rest assured that their views are paramount.
