I READ with weariness comments on the letters pages (September 25) that Spain has a constitution that the Catalans voted hugely for after the horrors of the Franco era.

In 1978, people were desperate for some kind of freedom. But that was then. Should constitutions be to protect citizens’ rights, or to tie them into fossilised bondage, giving them no free will?

Things have moved on. The Catalan people are asserting their identity and uniqueness. They ask only for a referendum to give voice to their views. Yet the Spanish state comes down on them with all the horrors of the tactics of pre-“democracy” Francoist terror.

Where is constitutional democracy in that? By their actions they insult the very spirit of the constitution and democracy.

It is up to all of us to stand up and say: “No! – this is an affront to democracy.”

And so I and many others from Scotland are going over to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in solidarity with the Catalan people on the day of the referendum and to stand against the forces of state repression that represents no democracy but only state tyranny!
Crìsdean Mac Fhearghais
Dùn Eideann