War Machines on Holiday

Spanish hippies are quaking in their boots.

Spanish ecologists on Tuesday protested the arrival of a British nuclear submarine off the British territory of Gibraltar, on Spain's south coast, the second such visit in just over a week.

HMS Turbulent docked Monday for "a routine visit for a few days," officials from the Command of British Forces said, adding that a first submarine, HMS Trenchant, had left the tiny British territory last Wednesday after a four day visit.

Spanish ecology group Verdemar on Tuesday repeated protests about nuclear submarine visits to the territory bordering Spain.

Last week, the British government denied suggestions by a Spanish official that they had been negotiating an agreement with the Spanish government to restrict the use of Gibraltar by submarines.

"No negotiations of this kind have taken place," the British Foreign Office said in a statement, repeated by the British Governor's office in Gibraltar.

Last month, the Spanish government said it was still waiting for Britain to express in writing a commitment London made four years ago to end visits by British nuclear submarines to Gibraltar, although Madrid recognised that the territory's interior waters were ceded by Spain to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Welcome to Europe, where a half century of uninterrupted safety with nuclear submarines can't stop your neighbors from protesting the use of a port you've owned for nearly three centuries. Look at that date, ladies and gentlemen: 1713. If I were the Brits, I'd increase visits of nuclear subs to Gibraltar, and sink a couple of unmanned Spanish fishing boats, just for the excuse to fly the Jolly Roger.

Poosh? Comments?