Horrific scenes in Catalonia

Sir, - I watched in horror as the peaceful referendum in Catalonia turned into a bloodbath at the hands of baton-wielding thugs from the Spanish National Guard.

Yes, under Spain’s constitution it may have been illegal to hold a referendum on independence but was this justification for what we saw?

Old and young alike were beaten with heavy truncheons to the detriment of their lives.

Sadly we saw much the same action being taken against the striking miners of North Yorkshire when Thatcher’s bully boys broke up a rally and nearly brought the country to civil war.

Imposing your will on a country’s people is a dictatorship, even if you are a duly elected dictatorship, and mealy mouth words from the Scottish secretary to what we have just witnessed in Catalonia have only served to strengthen the Spanish Government’s hand to further oppress and bully.

Within living memory in the US, it was illegal for black people to gather in protest, yet they gathered and marched in their thousands, behind their leader Martin Luther King, and changed the law.

If you want advanced citizenship, it is not only right but our duty to question our leaders.

Who would today dispute that Black Americans then had that right?

And that is why I support independence for Scotland; when an elected body denies people’s rights for a change, the people should have the opportunity of kicking them out of office.

I can only hope that the European leaders can knock heads together and a peaceful outcome can be found in Catalonia and Spain.

As for Scotland, if the entrenched position of the Unionist parties at

Westminster continue to deny Scotland a voice in Europe, there can be only one outcome – another referendum on Scottish independence. Walter Hamilton. Flat 3 City Park, St Andrews.