This extradition is harmful

Sir, – After our national referendum, Scotland must surely be close to the top of the league table when it comes to putting democratic theory into practice, but that leaves us with a bit of a problem regarding the Catalan woman Clara Ponsati, who is living and working in St Andrews.

Along with other Catalans, she is now named on a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish Government: their crime is “Sedition against the Spanish State”and members of her group are already in Spanish prisons pending trial while the ‘ring-leader’, Carles Puigdemont, has been seized in Germany.

It is interesting to note that the law being used against these Catalans was brought into being around 1940 by General Franco, one of four dictators tearing Europe apart at that time, the others being Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini.

I trust the High Courts, both in Edinburgh and London, will realise granting the extradition of Ms Ponsati and moving her from St Andrews to a prison in Madrid is counterproductive not only for democracy in general but for the failing European Union in particular.

Archibald A. Lawrie. 5 Church Wynd, Kingskettle.

The SNP have been opponents of the CFP for decades, with the stated intention of fundamentally reforming the policy or scrapping it entirely