On 09-Oct-17 11:08 AM, Robin wrote:
On 09/10/2017 09:57, Nightjar wrote:
On 08-Oct-17 10:39 PM, ARW wrote:
eg Catalonia,

I'm all for democracy and a free vote.

I think the Spanish government made a serious error of judgment in not
allowing the referendum to go ahead without opposition. The evidence
is that only about 40% of Catalans favour separation. If the police
had not deterred any but the most vehement activists from voting, the
referendum would probably have reflected that. In any case, a
referendum is not binding and, in the Spanish case, the constitution
would prevent the government from granting independence even if it
didn't.


That seems to me to overlook 2 matters.Â* One is the Spanish
constitution.Â* That was adopted in 1978 with a referendum (and one in
which Catalan voted overwhelmingly in favour).Â* It provides that the
Spanish nation is indissoluble.Â* The other is that the Catalan
government's legislation for was for a *legally binding* referendum.
That made the referendum illegal - as the courts ruled....

I didn't say they should have approved it, simply not stepped and
suppressed it by force. It would be a win-win situation for the
government. If the separatists lost, they would have evidence that there
was not enough support for separation in a free vote. In the unlikely
event that they won, they could say, very interesting, but the
referendum was not legal and the constitution prevents separation anyway.



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Colin Bignell