Self-interest on separation
WHEN they marched on the streets of Barcelona a few years ago, the stars of the Catalan independence movement held aloft posters of David Cameron.
The English toff prime minister, derided by Scottish nationalists, was celebrated as a heroic liberator in Catalonia because he did something no Spanish prime minister would do – grant a legally binding referendum on the very existence of his nation.
But not everyone seemed willing to accept the binding result of Cameron’s constitutional roll of the dice or the votes of two million people.
As the SNP pressed for a second go, their politicians were having their mouths zipped shut on everyone’s independence except their own.
As recently as March, the party’s European spokesman Stephen Gethins travelled to Spain’s capital with the assurance that the SNP were neutral on Catalan independence.
Worried Madrid might block a free Scotland from joining the EU, the SNP leadership had no qualms about dumping Catalonia for self-interest.
It was naivety on stilts to think Spain would ever remain neutral on an independent Scotland joining the EU and Gethins was given a two-vote reality check on the prospects of such an event happening a few months later. The situation in Catalonia is complex, and in danger of slipping into something even uglier than the police truncheons which did more to advance separation than any number of illegal ballots.
The only parallel that can be made with Scotland is that we had a legal referendum to settle the issue, they have not.
So let’s not pretend Catalonia’s is somehow a Scottish nationalist cause celebre, when six months ago the SNP leadership were putting solidarity way behind self-interest.
But then, who ever accused nationalism of having internationalist principles?