Damage to Catalonia

SIR – As a retired diplomat (in service from 1980 to 2008), I am ashamed, but not surprised, by the reaction of the Foreign Secretary to events in Catalonia over the weekend and the pusillanimous statement issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The FCO long ago gave up putting its head above the parapet on sensitive international issues if to do so might offend a friendly state.

General Franco would have been proud of the actions of the Spanish government in suppressing grassroots democracy in Catalonia. But it serves to reinforce the determination of the people of Gibraltar not to agree to surrender their sovereignty to a state which could act in this way.

And the reaction of the EU shows that it is more concerned with maintaining its progress towards creating a superstate in Europe than it is with the preservation of local democracy.

As for the FCO, who can remember the last time it really stood up for the UK and UK national interests?

Dereham, Norfolk

SIR – The response to the referendum in Catalonia by Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, went well, didn’t it?

What does he plan to do next?

London SE12

SIR – Anyone who thinks the EU has entered negotiations with Britain with anything other than a punishment agenda should look at what has happened in Catalonia.

We have been warned.

London SE11

SIR – The Government should now insist that there will be no further negotiations about a financial settlement with the EU until the Catalan independence dispute is settled.

Thatcham, Berkshire

SIR – Surely the correct procedure for the Madrid government was to allow the referendum to go ahead, and if the result was for independence, to make them vote again.

Northwood, Middlesex