Occasional outrage...

Not an electrical outrage this time but there's certainly a current involved! Colleagues of mine are outraged (faux) by the news that The Royal Navy in the Strait of Gibraltar use buoys with a Spanish flag for target practice! From El Mundo online (no news yet in English) and clearly polemical - there are already nearly 200 comments, 40 or so of which were written whilst I was writing this blogpost (many, as one would expect, against the inaction of Spanish politicians!). El Mundo says that according to Military Institute 'sources' a Civil Guard patrol boat spotted a Royal Navy boat that, as soon as they [the British] detected the presence of the Spanish Civil Guard, picked up a buoy that had the Spanish flag attached which up to that point they had been using for target practice.

"La nave británica, al ver acercarse a la patrullera española, lanzó advertencias por megafonía: "No pueden estar ustedes aquí, son aguas internacionales"... ..."The British ship, seeing the approaching Spanish patrol 'launched' warnings by megaphone: "You cannot be here, these are international waters.""

Update 14:30: now over 500 comments but a fine response by one of many named anonimous (message 477):

Yo creo que ninguna bandera merece la enemistad de dos pueblos. Yo vivo en el Campo de Gibraltar y la convivencia entre espanioles y gibraltarenios es muy buena, de mucho respeto y todos queremos que asi siga siendo. Los politicos lo embrollan todo y lo ultimo que necesitamos en una de las regiones mas desfavorecidas del pais, es que ahora quieran enemistarnos con nuestros vecinos.

"I don't think any flag should cause (deserves) the enmity between two nations. I live in Gibraltar and the coexistence between the Spanish and Gibraltans is very good, with lots of respect and we all want it to remain so. Politicians entangle everything and the last thing we need in one of the most disadvantaged regions of the country is that they now want us to be at odds with our neighbours."

P.S. (11pm) Just in time to tell you that by one of those strange coincidences today is one of the 27 official UK's flag-flying days :-)