After a year of accusations, denouncements in La Linea courts, gaffes by Spanish politicians about territorial waters ... the final curtain is falling on the New Flame drama.
Of course when a ship sinks unfortunately there's going to be some pollution. Most was contained and the tanks were succesfully emptied.
However every drop of oil that appeared on Spain's beaches for the next year was from the New Flame. Spanish environmentalists were up in arms. Ignoring the Spanish government's failure to come close to meeting any of their emission targets and and the fact that the small patches of oil they photographed could have come from anywhere. (I've seen more under a Honda Civic on Line Wall Road.)
Well it looks like the final piece of the Panamanian registered 'New Flame' is about to leave Gibraltar's territorial waters.
Of course it would have been better if it hadn't happened ... but in the rush to take a cheap shot at Gibraltar during the Spanish General Election, quite a few Spanish politicians ended up with egg on their faces.
Charles Zammit from the 
The GHA’s Pathology Department has now received all the results of the 3,500 blood tests collected in Gibraltar. Laboratories in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US have been engaged in analysing the tests within the time window identified by Julian’s Medical Team at Great Ormond Street.
