The Cauldron: Prolier than thou

The recent frenzied public class struggle between our local politicians has reminded me of Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch where wealthy, privileged men try to outdo each other with stories of their upbringing. As the conversation progresses, their accounts of deprived childhoods become increasingly absurd: "We had to live in a cardboard box!" ... "A cardboard box? You were lucky! We lived for three months in a rolled-up newspaper in a septic tank!”

What is this ridiculous obsession of Gibraltar politicians trying to prove they are part of the proletariat? Those ‘rich beyond their wildest dreams’, multiple car-owning, designer suit wearing, champagne quaffing lads are fooling no one. Do any of them know what it’s like to be unemployed or struggle to pay the bills? This ‘prolier than thou’ faux persona has been a ploy to pull in the voters for years now heightened by recent statements made by the Chief Minister.

According to Fabian Picardo Gibraltar has enjoyed 15 years of a left-wing government and he’s now having to give people a wake-up call lest the right-wing Gibraltar Social Democrats “get a cigarette paper between those who are the representatives of the working classes”. He’s worried that Union infighting could open the door for the current opposition party to be elected to government and bring forth their “invidious” proposals. (Did he mean invidious or insidious?) Whatever it is we’ve now been duly warned that left-wing is good and right-wing is bad and a vote for the GSD in the next election would jeopardise LGBTQ+ rights and sexual equality. Yet, Gibraltar does not have sexual equality on pension age despite constant calls for men and women to be equalised to 65.

Can we really differentiate between traditional right and left in 2026? When the GSLP first came to power in 1988 they prided themselves on being ‘ordinary citizens’ whose candidates represented the reality of our electorate (e.g. none of them were lawyers or members of the Royal Gibraltar Yacht Club). Things were quite clear cut in those days, you were either gente del pish or you weren’t, but as with most things, the lines were blurred. Peter Caruana, who led the GSD to victory in 1996, never tried to pass off as working class or liberal. He was proudly conservative, religious and centre-right, yet his winning team was made up of a variety of people. The GSLP soon began to water down their hard left vibe by introducing lawyers and so-called upper-class people as candidates. The alliance with the Liberal Party threw the whole ideology open and by the time Fabian Picardo took over as leader, both main political power houses looked exactly the same: A horribly high percentage of men and an equally worrying number of lawyers. And their vision? POWER!

Historically, the left/right divide came from the seating arrangements in the National Assembly during the French Revolution: Left side wanted radical change and equality. Right side defended monarchy, tradition, hierarchy. Over time the meanings evolved yet in 2026 Gibraltar our Chief Minister is screeching fire and brimstone with harsh warnings about the coming of right-wing Keith Azopardi & Co to take away all our workers’ rights.

Following their election victory in 2011, the GSLP/Liberals introduced Workers' Memorial Day, as a public holiday to honour those who have been killed or injured at work. They also moved the May Day holiday to the 1st of May, as opposed to the nearest Monday which was the previous case in line with the UK. The government said it was an “ideologically significant date for working people”, although most people who go to work or run a small business in Gibraltar found it highly irritating and disruptive. So, does all the jiggery-pokery with bank holidays and arguments about who is going to lay a wreath do anything to help or support the average person in Gibraltar?

The standard minimum wage in Gibraltar is £9.50 per hour whereas in the UK it is £12.71. The UK National Living Wage is an obligatory minimum wage payable to workers aged 21 and over; if you earn below the minimum, you will be topped up by the Universal Credit system. We often hear cries for ‘PARITY WITH THE UK!’ but clearly it does not apply to our local benefits system or the way public housing is allocated. If you lose your job in Gibraltar, you are only entitled to a measly £62.70 per week for just over 11 weeks and after that you’re abandoned. There’s ‘social assistance’ which is paltry, but if you own a house forget it. Imagine if you’re paying a mortgage and have a family to feed and you suddenly lose your job, what happens?

The government does not make it easy for people to see what benefits they may be eligible for, as it’s all hidden and people are forced to play a painful bureaucratic game which involves endless form filling and rejection. Now that we have e-gov there should be a way for people to apply online and find out what they can claim without having to go in person with a begging bowl to a public counter.

Our current government boasts how it is the champion of the workers, yet its own supply list is bulging with teachers, some who have been languishing there for over five years totally contrary to the Employment Act. What can our supply workers do while they wait? Permanent Supply Teachers in the UK are guaranteed Universal Credit which covers the periods that are not in school, yet qualified teachers in Gibraltar are left hanging in a precarious situation where they cannot get a rental contract or mortgage, cannot progress in life and often give up the profession. What a waste of a PGCE! There are other public sector employees who complain of zero-hours style contracts which do not give them any stability, and it’s disingenuous for the government to claim it cares when the evidence shows the opposite.

There is no left-right divide in Gibraltar politics but there is a whopping great chasm between public and private sector workers. The minimum entry salary in the public sector (approx. £24,000) is significantly higher than the private sector. The public sector offers better job stability, annual leave, working hours, sick pay and pensions. If, for example, a woman has to have a hysterectomy (a common occurrence for women over 50) she will need a six-week recovery period. If she works in the private sector she is only entitled to two weeks full pay plus four weeks half pay. Therefore, she will lose two weeks of pay. No such thing for public servants who generally receive substantially longer paid sick leave. A recently introduced government policy added an extra three months of full-pay sick leave for workers with critical or life-threatening illnesses, on top of existing entitlements. Wonderful if you’re lucky enough to work for the government but what about the rest of us plebs?

Gibraltar needs a complete reset with regard to politicians and political parties. What’s more frightening: Fabian Picardo’s performance as an ersatz Robin Hood, or Keith Azopardi dressed in a red fake fur coat?