Slight problem with Britain "handing it back" - if the majority of the inhabitants don't want to be signed over to some other country, you can't make them. Self-determination is the word (or words ;-)

For the same reason, we can't just say, "Right, all you Northern Irish are now part of Eire, we don't want you in the UK any more" - there's a clear majority of ppl in NI who *do* want to stay part of the UK, so for better or worse it's staying in the UK.

The Gibraltarians don't want to be Spanish, they don't want to be some independent country, they want to stay part of the UK. Hrothgar, it's not that they *like* the British, it's that they consider themselves to *be* British. If that's inconvenient for the current government of the UK, then it's just tough on the government that they can't arbitrarily say "this or that group of ppl are no longer citizens of our country".

Graham.