ALL eyes are on Catalonia now as the Catalan Government calls Spain’s bluff. The Spanish Government is using the Spanish constitution to try to face down Catalonian demands.

If Spain wants to ensure that the Catalans leave Spain, they will have to use force to block the democratic right of the people of Catalonia to become independent, and reap the dangerous consequences of their stupidity.

Constitutions are of course man made and often designed by those holding power who benefit from them, as is the Spanish case. But they are not democratically valid unless those affected by them agree to their provisions. All through history they have changed, been abandoned, rewritten and fitted to changed circumstance.

The United Nations Charter, however, is unambiguous and all members of the United Nations are subject to its conditions. It states: “All people’s have the right to self determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”. It couldn’t be clearer, and it is also the reason why the UK Government, successors to the UK that is an original signatory to the United Nations Charter and a member the United Nations Security Council, may continue to bluff and bluster but will not prevent Scotland having another democratic referendum.

Dave McEwan Hill

Sandbank, Argyll