Spain

As a rule I dislike blogging about anything too serious. If I don't have a sufficient grasp of the information about a topic I would generally endeavour to avoid giving my opinion.

But...

I'll be totally honest, the first I became aware of the referendum in the Catalonian part of Spain was today, when it started trending on Twitter.

If you're not aware, the referendum, called for by the regional Catalonian parliament, is for independence of the region, and allegedly if the vote is successful then within a matter of days the region will declare itself to be independent of Spain.

Big. Disruptive. A massive concern to the Spanish government, I'm sure. The referendum has been arranged and pushed on with even without the agreement of the national government, there are questions over its accuracy, and it has even been classed as illegal.

So whatever result comes out of it, there's grounds for arguing that the referendum is not valid.

But...

The Spanish governments response to this referendum has been to use police forces to disrupt the referendum, seizing voting materials, and arresting key people charged with organising the referendum.

And today, they have used those forces to directly disrupt the vote, using force. Hundreds of citizens have been injured by the police. There has even been the bizarre sight of regional firefighters being attacked by the police for trying to prevent them from entering polling locations.

Regardless of whether the referendum was legal or not, we are talking about a country using its police forces to injure people attempting to vote - not people dealing drugs, not murdering people, not abducting children, not even committing fraud. A country having its people beaten for administering a vote.

Imagine if that happened in your own country. Would that be acceptable?

I recognise that in other countries there has been similar events to this, and even worse disgraces. But that should not mean that what is happening in Spain is acceptable.

The initial reactions from some of those bodies that could put pressure on Spain has not been encouraging.  I have taken the opportunity to write to my representatives in the UK parliament, and to sign a number of online petitions.

Wherever you are in the world, I do think that it is valuable to protest these actions. It is not acceptable in the modern world for a government to act in this way.

Do contact your democratic representative, and below are a couple of petitions that you may wish to sign:

Worldwide petition - "For freedom and the rule of law in Catalonia" on change.org (it is in French but it's one of the most signed petitions so I've linked to it) - https://www.change.org/p/la-catalogne-doit-voter

UK only petition - "To condemn the repression of democracy and freedom of speech in Catalonia" - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200914

Europe - Brexit or Bremain?

Well, the UK Prime Minister has announced the upcoming referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EU, or not.  And now will follow four months of various "leaders" showing up in the media, explaining to us why it is imperative that we remain in / leave (delete as applicable) the EU.

The trouble is, no one knows.  Everyone will have their opinion, and may well be very forthright in their opinion.  But no one knows what will happen for sure.  I've listened to various people on both sides of the argument, and I think they both have valid points of view.

Here's some of my thoughts, for the sake of fleshing out a blog post:

• There is a risk that if the UK remains within the EU, and the Euro currency collapses, that the UK will be forced to help bail out other countries.
• There is a risk that if the UK leaves the EU and subsequently need financial assistance from other countries that the UK won't get help.
• The UK contributes more money to the EU than it receives from the EU.
• The EU is a heavily bureaucratic organisation that by definition can't have the best interests of any single member state in mind, because they have to do what is best for the whole.
• There is strength in numbers - globally, economic power seems to be transferring to Asia, and beyond that Africa appears to be rising also.  A group such as the EU should have more ability to protect itself economically than an individual country.
• If the UK leaves the EU, we risk triggering a second referendum in Scotland to ask if they want to remain within the UK (and subsequently bringing the UK itself to an end)
• The view of the UK is often different to other member states, for example the UK doesn't seem to believe in closer union, and typically views immigration as a problem, whilst others can view immigration as an opportunity to gain new skills.
• The EU can and does impose laws that the UK is required to put into force, regardless of whether we agree or not.
• The EU looks to apply a commonality of law across the member states, so that it is easier to operate across countries.
• If the UK left the EU it would still need to comply with EU requirements in order to trade with the EU - without any ability to influence those requirements.
• If the UK left the EU it could jeopardise other agreements that the UK has with other EU states, for example the agreement for UK border guards to operate in Calais.
• If the UK left the EU it could free up the UK to work on independent trade deals with other countries, such as China.
• If the UK attempted to form trade deals with other countries, the UK may not obtain as attractive arrangements on the grounds that it is an individual country trading and not a group such as the EU.
• The requirement to advertise contracts Europe-wide makes it impossible to reserve public contracts for UK businesses.
• The requirement to advertise contracts Europe-wide lets the UK see opportunities in other countries.

So, for me it's not clear whether to stay or to leave is best, and I very much doubt that I'm on my own.

Let me know your views in the comments!