ON Sunday February 29, a rally was held in the Catalan city of Perpinya within France (Perpignan, in French), in which 200,000 Catalans met up again with Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsati, the Catalan MEPs living in exile in Belgium and Scotland.
This had to be done on French territory because, despite the fact that they enjoy immunity in the EU, Spain had already threatened that if they entered its territory they would be arrested. They are accused of having organised a referendum on self-determination where more than two million Catalans voted on whether they were in favour of a Catalan republic independent of the kingdom of Spain.
This happened after more than ten years of mass demonstrations, during which time Spain had refused to engage in dialogue. Finally, in 2017, the Catalan Government decided to organise this referendum to put pressure on Spain, but their response was to send 10,000 police to beat up the voters.
Since then, the trust with Spain has been totally broken, even more so as Spain continues to repress, using their police and judges, to try to make the Catalans submit.
Now the new Spanish Government (equally repressive so far) needs the Catalan votes in the Spanish Parliament and has accepted a negotiation table. However, since the Catalan group can only accept the option of a referendum where society decides, and an amnesty for the prisoners and those who have been repressed – the Spanish Government are already saying that they will never accept this – the negotiations will not prosper and we will return to the same point: Spanish repression or a democratic solution with a referendum.
For the moment, the mass gathering in Perpinya makes it clear that Catalan society remains determined not to be subdued.
Jordi Oriola Folc
Barcelona
CAN I reassure Stephen Tingle regarding his estimate of 120,000 deaths from Covid-19 infection in Scotland (Letters, March 5)? The death rate projections of 2% refer to the number of people who contract the infection, not to the whole population.
The figures pale into relative insignificance when compared to the pandemic of so-called “Spanish” Flu following the First World War which, in a world with a much smaller population than we have now, killed 40-50 million.
I have a strong suspicion that the government and media are deliberately waving these numbers around to distract from the disasters they are manufacturing without the aid of a virus.
Les Hunter
Lanark
THE onset and emergency response to the coronavirus within the UK may perhaps have another significant implication.
In the event that Westminster potentially becomes a banned site for the gathering of people, would it fall into the hands of the dark forces currently pulling the political strings? Two or three weeks without chamber debate could become an unforeseen opportunity for those who would take advantage.
Who would ever have thought that a few cases of flu-like symptoms in a Chinese city would lead to worldwide chaos so quickly? Strange implications this virus has.
Dougie Gray
Dunbar
BORIS Johnson and his personal adviser must think their prayers have been answered. With the consequences of the Coronavirus masking their failure to deliver on the ridiculous and exaggerated promises of milk and honey on leaving the EU and Parliament being suspended for months, they can do any damage they want without scrutiny. I can hear the shouts of glee from 400 miles away.
Mike Underwood
Linlithgow
SO it seems that untold billions of taxpayers’ cash is available to build a new railway line from Birmingham to London (HS2) and an underground line in London (Crossrail) but not a penny to save Flybe, the largest regional airline in Europe. 2000 jobs will be lost directly, with many more presumably in the airports that it served, including all of Scotland’s large airports.
Brian Lawson
Paisley
I WATCHED the Hibs v Hearts game on TV on Tuesday night and witnessed the most obvious handball you are ever likely to see. Scott Allan jumped for the ball in the penalty box and stuck his arm up in the air where it made contact with the ball. Matthew Lindsay’s report in The National claims it was “ inadvertent”. To quote an erstwhile tennis champ, “you cannot be serious!”.
George Foulis
Edinburgh
ENCOURAGING to see yet another letter (Brian Kelly, March 5) supporting a Yes Alliance party to go for list votes in next year’s Holyrood elections. Great plan to split SNP and Green votes on the list to let pro-Union parties get additional list MSPs.
Tom Crozier
Ayr
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