REUTERS HAS AN REASONABLE OVERVIEW of the freezing state of the Anglo-Spanish relations:

Tony Blair and Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ought to be ideological soulmates -- both are reforming Socialists who led their parties back to power after years in the political wilderness.

Instead, Anglo-Spanish relations are at their coolest in years, chilled by divisions over Gibraltar and Iraq.

Of course, being Reuters means including the canard that bringing the troops home the day after taking office was carrying out a campaign pledge; as I explained, it would have been if he had pulled out the troops on June 30 and there had been no UN resolution. I personally would have respected that decision under these conditions, though strongly disagreeing with it; what I find contemptible is that, for political and electoralist reasons, he rushed out without waiting for that UN resolution to be passed, which eventually was.