Catalonia: what now?

SIR – Charles Moore draws a distinction between Catalonia’s referendum and our Brexit vote (Comment, October 9).

Ours was indeed legally granted, the other not – but it still the expressed wish of a majority. What now? Roger Payne

London NW3

SIR – Friends of mine in Catalonia have always maintained that Britain behaved badly towards Catalonia after the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession.

The treaty guaranteed independence to Catalonia, being in part recognition of the support it gave Britain during that war. When the Spanish crown ignored this guarantee, invading and suppressing Catalonia, no support came from Britain. It was another case of Perfidious Albion.

How shameful, then, that when Britain had the chance to take some small measure to rectify that betrayal of 300 years ago, the Foreign Secretary failed to come out in favour of the result of the Catalonian referendum, in the face of the oppressive tactics used by Madrid. Russell O Armitage

Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand