I am not going to write a lengthy piece on the Catalan
bid to be freed from Spain. All I wish to point out is that I respect democracy
- and forced, unwanted union is the opposite of that.
Had it not been for that very positive by-product of
The American Civil War in the abolition of slavery - it is quite clear that, in
all other areas, the moral high ground lay with the Confederacy. States' rights
normally trump all the other issues. But in the matter
of slavery, however, that higher moral
ground superceded all else.
Consider Spain's attitudes to: Ceuta, Melilla
and Gibraltar.
Broker the Falklands issue into the
argument.
Add the Brexit question.
Consider Kosovo.
The democratic voice of peoples must be heard and
arguments which talk about suppression of rights to self-determination 'for the
greater good' must be shunned. It is the very worst of leftist - or rightist - dictatorial attitudes.
Scotland cannot survive outside the UK without abject
surrender to the EU - even supposing that august body might want them! Scotland
takes far more from the UK than it gives. Without England, disaster looms - a fact
which was clearly recognised in the last referendum on the independence
issue.
Catalonia, however, possesses all the wealth which
Scotland does not.