Seeing the hope and emotion on the faces of the young people in the streets of Barcelona as the Catalan Parliament pronounced independence one was moved to ask why with so much passion and expectation could
a solution not be found.
The sight of the
Spanish President, Rajoy Brey pounding the lecture as he lectured his
people about the legitimacy of the Spanish Constitution and his
insistence that Catalan be brought back into the Spanish
fold and the European hegemony was reminiscent of Spain's history.
On the one hand an almost naive hope for a changed future which would more reflect the cultural differences
between Barcelona
and Madrid. The assumption that Madrid was not even handed in allocating
the national purse when it came to projects. The belief that the
prosperity generated in Catalan was not proportional
to their representation in the Spanish Economy, that they were repeatedly given a poor hand.
In Madrid
historical claims for authority, which had seen concessions made towards
the Basques and the Catalans and over time had seen the usual creep towards demanding full autonomy, which of course terrifies
the central government in Madrid.
This all seems strangely relevant to our own independence movement in Scotland.
The difference is
the implicit acknowledgement by Westminster that if Scotts vote to leave
then leave they will. This understanding and reliance on the democratic principle, that in the end 'the people will
choose' was seen in our exit
from Africa and virtually all the overseas territories. It might be
construed as running away but it is a civilised way of conducting
politics and recognising when the time
comes change is bound to happen. No histrionics, no demanding, no fist pounding.
It makes one pause and celebrate the thought of the benefits of living on this tiny island.
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