Monday 23 October 2017

It's not a question of Independence but the right to choose.

The silence from UK politicians over the events in Catalonia has been deafening but it seems to  seems to have broken in some quarters .

The Wasting Mule reports that speaking in a personal capacity, Welsh Assembly Minister for Lifelong Learning and the Welsh Language Alun Davies gave a scathing assessment of how Spain’s central government had responded to referendum.
Contrasting Madrid’s stance with how the UK Government facilitated the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, he said: “I think most people right across the political spectrum are looking at events in Madrid with increasing incredulity...

“Look what happened in Scotland where a central government – and a [unionist] government – in the UK, London, facilitated, enabled and participated in a referendum on independence in Scotland and won, defeated nationalism in Scotland, defeated separatism and established a new basis for a union moving forward.
“You would have thought that would be the textbook example for how to manage these sorts of issues and the Spanish Government seems to have learned no lessons from that at all and embarked upon a journey which seems to me to guarantee future Catalonian independence. How or when it happens I don’t know but it’s difficult to see an easy resolution to this.
“The worst thing for me is the violence of the Spanish state which can only be reminiscent of fascism, particularly with the Spanish history.”

His fellow Labour AM has also made similar comments.

Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past will repeat them. Spain’s Gov has just guaranteed eventual Independence

Ther point was also made by the  Blogger Another Angry Voice who appears on of the few Liberal-Left outside  Wales Scotland and Cornwall to give support to Catalonia


His fellow Labour AM has also made similar coments.

Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past will repeat them. Spain’s Gov has just guaranteed eventual Independence
 In the same article Welsh Tory MP said

 “I just think it’s extraordinary... This is the sort of thing you’d expect to see in some caricature of a banana republic...
“I think it’s fair to say that you would expect and anticipate Spain’s friends in the international community saying to the Spanish Government, ‘You need to think hard about what you’re doing and you need to think hard about the consequences of what you are doing.’

 Of course this is not support for Catalan Independence even from Alun Davies a former Plaid Cymru candidate, but surely the question to ask for UK politicians  is not that Catalonia should be independent but they should have the right to ask their citizens through a democratic process if that's what they want and respond if they say Yes.  

As Plaid Cymru Adam Price   describing the response of Madrid in which Labour's European allies PSOE are complacent  as the “very stuff of a coup d’etat” and “unthinkable in a western democracy”.
Warning that the situation is entering “very, very dangerous territory indeed”, he wants to see international mediation and a negotiated settlement.
He wants Wales to convey clear solidarity for Catalonia in response to Madrid’s push for direct rule, arguing:
 “Because this is an act which goes against the very essence of democratic self-determination, as a small country that has won a degree of autonomy – of which we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary – then we should be sending a message of support and solidarity to the Catalan people and voice our unequivocal opposition to this power-grab by the centre...
“I think we need to make our position clear.”
 Segregation was legal in both South Africa and the US South that does not mean that we accepted it .

It may be easier for me as supporter of  a Europe of "a hundred flags" and that our Ddraig Goch should be one of them , to support  Catalan Independence.

But you don't have to follow this line to support the right to choose to leave , the UK France, Belgium Spain or any European state.

By all means back whatever Union you support , just do not deny the right to ask the question of Independence to their citizens,




 

 
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