Politicians flag Brexit and constitutional reform as new Governor is sworn in
Lieutenant General Edward Davis was sworn in as Gibraltar’s new Governor and Commander in Chief yesterday, in a ceremony at Parliament House that was rich in tradition but focused too on future challenges facing the Rock.
The Governor and his wife, Lorraine, arrived on the Rock having steamed in time-honoured fashion through British Gibraltar territorial waters on board the Royal Navy landing ship RFA Mounts Bay.
Inside Parliament, Lt Gen Davis used the occasion to reaffirm the UK's double-lock sovereignty commitment to Gibraltar and set out a pledge of his own.
Flanked by Speaker Adolfo Canepa, Chief Justice Anthony Dudley and – until yesterday - acting Governor Alison MacMillan, he said the people of the Rock had an inviolable right to self-determination and to remain British for as long as they wished.
Britain, he said, would never discuss or cede Gibraltar's sovereignty against the wishes of the people of Gibraltar.
“I judge the support of the United Kingdom for the Government of Gibraltar and its people as never being stronger or more openly expressed,” the Governor told the dignitaries gathered in Parliament House.
“My touchstone principles, as Gibraltar progresses confidently forward, will be the people of Gibraltar’s inalienable right of self-determination and the upholding of a commitment to secure the people of Gibraltar’s consent in all matters that pertain to the sovereignty of Gibraltar."
He added: “As our top priority we want to get to know and lis- ten to as broad cross section of the people of Gibraltar as is possible, so we can grow to understand their hopes and fears for the future,” he said.
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20th January 2016
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