Conclusions

Abstract

This volume has illustrated how the economic prosperity and political security are the two pillars of the Gibraltarian British. Brexit raises new questions about how sturdy these pillars are. It seems clear that as they shift or even fall, Gibraltarian Britishness will change. It seems scarcely possible that the emotional and political connections with Britain could remain the same if Britain itself undergoes profound change. This is not to underestimate either the deep nationalist sentiment in Gibraltar or the deeply felt attachment to the UK. Britishness itself, however, is changing and Brexit is likely to be a point where what it means to be British changes more rapidly in the UK and elsewhere. This volume has examined in some detail how Gibraltarians have changed from a people with a largely Spanish outlook and strong solidarities with Spanish people to one increasingly Anglophone and expressing a sharp social and cultural differentiation with their neighbours. This trajectory, essentially over the course of one lifetime, is certainly dramatic, not sui generis but rooted in profound economic and political foundations and transformations. It seems clear that were economic and political conditions to change, so too would Gibraltarians’ British identities.