One of the most enduring impressions for visitors to Gibraltar
is its Britishness. And it's not just the red post and
telephone boxes. Anyone who happened to be outside our Parliament
on 22 June this year would have seen Chief Minister Fabian Picardo
arriving to deliver this year's Budget address. It was carried
in a Westminster-style red dispatch box – one that he had
acquired personally after taking office and has now donated to
government for continued use by him and his successors.
I thought I might delve inside that red box for this month's
article. Typically, measures announced in Gibraltar's Budget
are analysed comprehensively (and very swiftly) in the excellent
briefings provided by Gibraltar's accountancy firms. So I
don't propose to repeat the exercise some six weeks after the
event. Rather I thought it might be useful to consider the broader
messages contained in the address.
