Catalonia fallout

No matter where you stand on the Catalonian independence issue, it was hard to stomach the scenes of police brutality taking place in Barcelona on Sunday. I applaud The Scotsman for their editorial condemning the shameful acts of violence which we witnessed with growing anger and dismay.

The Guardia Civil, a paramilitary force sent in from around the country, had no local affiliations acting as a restraint on their brutality. Incontrast, the Mossos d’esquadra, the Catalan regional police, mostly refused to act aggressively against their fellow Catalans. Some were even reduced to tears as they struggled with the reality of the situation in which they found themselves embroiled.

They took no action to evacuate the occupants of the polling stations, which were set up in schools where generations of children who were born in the post-spanish Civil War years have learnt about the atrocities carried out by General Franco’s troops during that appalling conflict.

Many Catalonians born in the 1930s clearly remember the brutality which they witnessed under Franco’s regime, and events on Sunday will have opened up psychological wounds which will only serve to deepen their resolve to defy the Spanish government and to demand self-determination.

CAROLYN TAYLOR Wellbank, Broughty Ferry

Dundee It is interesting indeed, to compare the civilised way the Brit- ish Government handled the Scottish independence referendum, with the staggering ineptitude of the Spanish Government over the Catalonian one.

The tragedy for Spain is that the unionist side may well have won this referendum, with support for breaking away at about 40 per cent; this would have defused the situation. Now, they have alienated even moderate opinion, hence making independence more certain.

How fortunate indeed we are to live in the UK, where wiser counsels prevailed. Unfortunately, the SNP won’t agree, and won’t be budged from their intransigence.

WILLIAM BALLANTINE, Dean Road, Bo’ness, West Lothian The contrasts between the Catalan and Iraqi Kurdish independence referenda are unsettling.

Catalonia is divided with as many people opposed to its separation from Spain as in support of it. Although Catalan as a language is distinct from Castilian Spanish, there is no great cultural or ethnic divide.

The Spanish government sought legally, if harshly, to disrupt and undermine the vote. ‘No’ voters largely stayed at home. And yet the Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont claims a mandate to unilaterally declare independence.

By contrast, support for independence among Iraqi Kurds is rock solid, as it would be among the Kurds of Turkey, Syria and Iran, if they were ever to be asked. Also, there are deep ethnic and linguistic differences between the Kurds and their Arab and Turkish neighbours.

So the Catalan nationalists on limited support and an illegitimate referendum are throwing Spain and the EU into crisis and may soon achieve independence, while the Kurds, the victims of repeated genocidal injustice, will just have to wait.

It is time we stopped indulging Catalan, Scottish and other micro-nationalisms unsupported by any substantial ethnic difference, where demagogic politicians seek to split successful countries for personal glory and selfadvancement.

OTTO INGLIS Inveralmond Grove, Edinburgh The Scottish National Party have put themselves somewhat out on a shaky limb by wholeheartedly backing the Catalonia independence movement. The declaration of ‘independence’ courtesy of the ‘result’ of the referendum by the leader of the Catalans, Carles Puigdemont, is on totally shaky ground. The actual vote was illegal and there was no opposition movement to speak of, therefore, it was a foregone conclusion that almost all the votes were pro independence.

The Catalan ‘government’ is a minority party itself and with a turnout of only 42.3 per cent of eligible voters the result is not valid on every level.

The SNP seem to be ignoring all these elements that make the vote irrelevant. The result is not binding and the SNP cannot take anything positive out of this debacle.

What they have done, however, is to harden opposition in the Spanish government to look favourably on any future EU membership by an independent Scotland. (DR) GERALD EDWARDS

Broom Road, Glasgow It is horrifying to have watched a flickering flame of fascism being reignited this weekend in Catalonia. It is the only possible understanding of the Spanish reaction to the Catalonian referendum on independence.

What shocks me even more is the silence from Westminster, EU and United Nations. Are they so hypocritical that they proclaim “human rights” but stand silently by while such rights are violated so blatantly?

This is not a time for posturing: this flickering flame of fascism must be extinguished and Spain must take a step backwards from further violence.

BRIAN RATTRAY Gylemuir Road, Edinburgh. Following Brian Wilson’s last article (Scotsman, September 29) telling the Scottish government to keep out of the Catalonia independence referendum and questioning the right of small nations to take their future in their own hands, can we now expect his next one to congratulate the Spanish government on their strong arm response?

Perhaps in a perverse reversal of history he could form an International Brigade to help them and any countries with annoying minorities seeking their own destiny to stub out such ideas once and for all.

Or he could take his own advice and keep his nose out and leave such matters to