Catalonia farce

No-one except fanatics in support of independence can possibly accept that the Catalan referendum has legitimacy. Leave aside the fact that it was illegal under the Spanish constitution. Leave aside the fact that it has divided the country and set Catalan against Catalan. The essential truth is that only 37 per cent of the people of the region of Catalonia voted to separate from Spain even though to do so would cause economic and financial panic. Already there has been a run on the banks which, alongside major companies, are fleeing the region. Those Catalans who want Spain to remain a unitary state are in the majority – as repeated opinion polls have shown. This illegal referendum, predicated on grievance