Many of the people of the Spanish region of Catalonia want to be independent of the government in Madrid. Similar to many Scots, they no longer want to be a part of a country, they want to be a country in it's own right.
In the UK, the government, reluctantly, allowed the Scots to hold a referendum on the question of their independence and the majority voted to remain as part of the United Kingdom. In Spain yesterday, things were very different.
Apparently, holding independence referendums is illegal in Spain and so the central government took extraordinary steps to try to prevent one from taking place. With soldiers and armed police on the streets, voters were intimidated and brutalised, polling stations ransacked and ballot papers destroyed. The Spanish Prime Minister appeared on television to make a few noises about unity or some such but utterly ignored the shocking and appalling violence being perpetrated on his own people by his own police and military.
This was a dreadful indictment of the supposed democracy in Spain but is also mirrored to a degree by the way in which the European Union is attempting to punish the United Kingdom for its 'Brexit' referendum. Rather than accept the Will of the people and behave democratically, politicians of all flavours act like dictators, imposing their Will on others regardless of all else.
Politicians lie and cheat routinely. They will say whatever they believe will bring them power and, once they have that power, they will do whatever they like regardless of what the people want. Why on earth do we let them treat us this way ?
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