THE pictures on our TV screens and in our newspapers of what is happening in Catalonia in the run up to its independence referendum is deeply disturbing for all those who believe in democracy.

European values, civil rights, freedom of speech, freedom of information and freedom of assembly are being violated by the Spanish government, which has sent the police to search newspapers, printing companies and private mail services; ban political meetings; seize referendum material; and threaten to imprison democratically elected politicians.

Despite more than 70 per cent of Catalans supporting the holding of a referendum, Catalan home rule has effectively been suspended by the Spanish government. It’s a situation that harks back to the dark past of Spain and is not taking place in some tin-pot dictatorship, but within the European Union. This issue is now not just solely about independence, it is about fundamental civil rights and the universal right of self-determination.

Instead of engaging in discourse, the Spanish government has opted for police and judges, taking it beyond the limits of a respectable democracy and violating the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. The EU itself is built on these values and is committed to guaranteeing the rights proclaimed in the charter and in the EU treaties. As an EU member state, Spain should respect that. If not, it is the European Commission’s duty to intervene.

The international community must stand with Catalonia in its defence of democracy and true European values. In the meantime, Catalonia’s citizens are doing what they can to defend democracy, not with weapons, but through the ballot box.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh


I LISTENED to the whole of the Prime Minister’s speech in Florence yesterday afternoon and must compliment her on a delivery that would make the Royal Shakespeare Company proud. However, the content was seriously lacking in anything but “pipe dreams”. The leaders of European countries will be wondering which planet this Tory Government is on.

One thing that will not go down well in Europe was her thinly veiled invitation, obviously targeting France and Germany, to break ranks with the rest of the Union to push through a tariff free trading deal at no cost to the UK.

The other items of any significance such as meeting our financial obligations and the two year transitional period were aimed at the Tory right wing rather than the EU.
Mike Underwood
Linlithgow


SO, May is to offer 20,000,000,000 euros as a EU divorce settlement. I wonder how that figures against the £350,000,000 a week we were supposed to save and spend on the NHS. Scotland’s share must be around 2,000,000,000 euros. Given that the value of the pound is fast approaching the value of a euro that’s just about the same in pounds. As the value of the pound continues to fall as a result of this continued drive to economic suicide, the size of the bill in pounds will rise. There must be a touch of irony in there somewhere. Where will the UK get the 20,000,000,000 euros from? I doubt there is that much, especially in euros, lying in a drawer in Downing Street, left over from May’s visit to Florence. “Non, Madam May we will not take the money in your pounds — they are still wet as you have just printed them”. So presumably the UK will have to borrow the Euros, a currency the UK has rejected the use of. So from whom, possibly the EU, thankfully they have Central Bank. Over how long a period? At what interest rate? I have a feeling that our great, great, great (add as many as you like) grandchildren will be paying for this insanity.
Brian Lawson
Paisley


MAY continually emphasised the commonalities between the EU and the UK. However her talk in Florence reminded me of a lonely girl playing in a kindergarten sand pit fluttering a flag into the breeze and tearfully complaining to her best friend. “But we’re friends and in the past we always played so happily together, you can’t now suddenly be so horrible to me.”
Henrick Hauptmann
Buckie