A story on the BBC website last night:
The same story this morning:
The first version is entirely accurate. Readers can decide for themselves why someone at the BBC felt it needed to be changed from neutral terms to pejorative ones.
Sometimes it’s hard for Yes supporters in Scotland not to be a bit jealous of Catalonia.
Despite their would-be nation being only a little bit bigger than Scotland, and despite being faced with very real physical and legal intimidation, the Catalan independence movement regularly manages to put hundreds of thousands of people on the streets.
Yes marches and rallies in Scotland, by comparison, often struggle to get attendances numbered in the hundreds, largely because squabbling factions refuse to get along with each other and by far the biggest entity in the Yes movement – the SNP – wants nothing to do with them.
Marches don’t win independence, of course. But what does?
Amid the horror of events in Catalonia yesterday, the Prime Minister of the UK – quite unintentionally – said something during an interview on the Andrew Marr Show which was highly pertinent not only to the Catalan referendum but to British domestic politics too. We thought it needed saving for the record.
We’ll be keeping this post updated throughout the day with news as it comes in.
Remember as you look at these images: this is a modern European state reacting to an entirely peaceful democratic movement and process in 2017.
What’s going on in Catalonia today:
This site can’t claim to know enough about Spanish and Catalan politics to have an opinion about whether independence for Catalonia is a good idea or not. All we can say is that democracy is a good idea, and the draconian and extreme attempts of the Spanish government to suppress the referendum – ludicrously under-reported in the UK media, particularly broadcast media – are a terrifying throwback to its fascist past. We very much hope they don’t succeed.
(Buy Chris Cairns’ second great book of cartoons here. Plus cuddly Hamish!)
A Scot living in the EU, and an EU national living in Scotland, discuss the implications of the Brexit being forced on Scotland against its will by the UK government.
The clock is ticking.
A series inspired by a Unionist blog insisting that “On a practical level, I do not believe for one moment that Scotland could thrive alone”, and which led to our thinking about some of the world’s other independent nations.
NO. 4 – SWITZERLAND
Switzerland has a problem, readers.
Those poor Swiss, eh?
A series inspired by a Unionist blog insisting that “On a practical level, I do not believe for one moment that Scotland could thrive alone”, and which led to our thinking about some of the world’s other independent nations.
NO. 3 – LUXEMBOURG
Millionaire-funded diehard loyalist forelock-tugging faction Scotland In Union published an extraordinary blog post yesterday.
Its 606 words comprised a sort of Caledonian Cringe Greatest Hits, allegedly penned by someone called Fiona Annesley (of whom we’re told nothing else, and who has no detectable online presence), but the line that particularly caught people’s eye was this:
“On a practical level, I do not believe for one moment that Scotland could thrive alone.”
And that got us thinking about some of the world’s other independent nations.
Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.
