Meet some of the new faces joining our campaign to get Gibraltar back on track. Together, we can #MakeTheChange!
Keith Azopardi
GSD Leader
Building for the future
Welcome to the Gibraltar Social Democrats site. We hope you will find this site informative about the Party, its aims and the ideas we have in a number of areas.
I have been very keen that we should relaunch a new site to use as a platform for some of our interface with you. This will complement our Facebook and twitter presence. Of course this will be no substitute for direct engagement which we are also doing in parallel through our community outreach programme and other private meetings. If you have concerns that you would like to discuss with us by all means feel free to contact us and we will meet with you.
We feel passionately about Gibraltar. Our community has been built over centuries of hard work and perseverance of successive generations of Gibraltarians and long-term residents. Together we have created the small country we call home. We want this to be prosperous, stable and develop for generations to come. We have a right to our land and a right to determine our future. We want to ensure that we create the best living environment for all those who have made Gibraltar their home and that we do so in an environmentally, economically and politically sustainable way.
On this platform you will find information about the Party, key documents, policies and videos. If you share our objectives and want to join us there is also membership information available.
We would be delighted to have your support and contribution to our effort.
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We are interested in meeting you in person hearing from you and to listen to your thoughts and ideas, help us give you the voice to make a difference.
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Typical of Mr Picardo’s style of politics he accuses others of lying when they present facts. The presentation of issues by the Government is Orwellian.
It is a fact that Mr Picardo has given Mr Pyle a job. It is also a fact that Mr Pyle was the Governor in 2020, was central to what happened with Mr McGrail and was a core participant in those events. It is a fact that the Inquiry will look into those events. It is a fact that Mr Picardo is accused of wrongdoing by a party to that Inquiry. It is a fact that the evidence of Mr Pyle will be extremely relevant in the Inquiry. It is a fact that the Inquiry has not yet heard the case or investigated the issues. It is also a fact that despite the engagement of Mr Pyle to advise on civil service reform the Civil Service Union, the GGCA, were completely unaware of the appointment.
Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi, said: “All those things are facts. The engagement of Mr Pyle in the above circumstances is just weird and inappropriate. The problem is that Mr Picardo did not think through the implications of his actions, the perception he would create and whether that appointment was appropriate or inappropriate. He is blinded by a sense of political survival and not by a sense of what is right and proper. Is that the kind of leader for this community that we want?
We repeat that if the equivalent happened in the United Kingdom a serving Prime Minister would come under massive criticism for having given a job to someone who was central to events subject to an Inquiry in which the Prime Minister himself is accused of wrongdoing when the Inquiry had not yet heard the case.
If there is anyone who has a track record of spin, lies and half-truths it is Mr Picardo himself. The People will judge whether it is time to show him the door at the next election. What is ‘disgusting’ is his ‘anything goes’ type of politics, where truth does not matter and where he thinks he can get away with anything. We will continue to call things out as they are.”
Mr Picardo has no answer to the point raised by the GSD and resorts to lies and red herrings. The basic unanswerable point is that in the midst of an Inquiry into the events of 2020 in which Mr Picardo is accused of wrongdoing he has scandalously given a job to a main participant in the discussions with Mr McGrail. That is wholly inappropriate and smacks of keeping him sweet while difficult things are to be decided upon. That is undeniably the perception. The idea that Mr Pyle has been appointed for his expertise is farcical and simply a convenient narrative given the other surrounding circumstances. Indeed, when asked in Parliament about how this had come about Mr Picardo said that it was “simply…because Mr Pyle indicated that he was staying in the area and therefore he’s doing this and other jobs in the area.”
Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi said: “It would be unimaginable for a serving UK prime minister accused of wrongdoing to offer a job to another key figure in the middle of an Inquiry before the case has been heard. That would be roundly condemned as a wholly inappropriate move.
Mr Picardo is now desperately trying to say anything to survive and to divert from those undeniable perceptions. He has even gone as far as falsely saying that the GSD is smearing civil servants by talking about Mr Pyle. The thousands of Gibraltar civil servants won’t feel it is a smear campaign to name Mr Pyle, the former Deputy Governor, because he’s been offered a job by Mr Picardo. Many of those thousands of civil servants will think it is strange that Mr Pyle is being paid at a rate higher than the Chief Secretary when there are hundreds of civil service and public sector vacancies. If there is anyone devaluing our civil servants or undermining our public service and institutions it is Mr Picardo. There are former Chief Secretaries and other senior civil servants who will have a clearer grasp of the challenges of our public service who will also feel it is strange to see Mr Pyle’s appointment.
Of course, we understand that Mr Picardo should want to raise red herrings and smokescreens in a bid to save his skin. But after 12 years people are used to his tactics. He plays the man and not the ball and in an endless tirade of half- truths, twists, spin or downright lies. It’s time for him to leave and the sooner the better. If there are questions about fitness to govern these are now squarely about him. He sees nothing wrong with what he is doing, he is mired in conflicts and fighting desperately for political survival in the face of crisis after crisis.”
Job for ex-Deputy Governor Nick Pyle Inappropriate
The engagement by the Government of former Deputy Governor Nick Pyle is completely inappropriate while the McGrail inquiry is pending. The Chief Minister has revealed he is being paid £80/hour or in other words a rate that would amount to over £155,000 if he were to work full-time for a year. That would be on a higher scale than even the head of the Civil Service, the Chief Secretary, is paid.
Mr Pyle was Acting Governor in 2020 and like the Chief Minister is one of the core participants in the circumstances that led to the early retirement of the former Commissioner of Police, Mr McGrail. Extremely grave allegations have been fielded in that case about misconduct and that raise issues about the independence of the police. Those issues have yet to be considered or explored by the Inquiry Chairman.
Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi, said: “For Mr Pyle to be given a job to advise on civil service training & reform in the meantime is staggering. He is not a known expert on civil service training or reform. He is not a member of the Gibraltar civil service. He is not an expert on Gibraltar public services or public sector administration. Why is he being employed at all? This simply looks like the Chief Minister giving him a job to keep him sweet while difficult issues are being looked at. Imagine the scandal in the United Kingdom if a serving Prime Minister gave a job to someone who, together with him, was central to the facts of an Inquiry in which the Prime Minister was accused of wrongdoing before that case had even been heard. It would be inconceivable and would receive public condemnation if it did happen. It looks really bad. It appears from the answers Mr Picardo gave in Parliament that he is oblivious to those issues. He apparently thinks anything goes, however it looks.”
1a College Lane Gibraltar GX11 1AA
