Express & Star

EU silence is unsurprising

Since I incline to the left and can claim no particular knowledge of the politics of the Iberian peninsula, I confess that my instinctive reaction to the dispute between Carles Puigdemont and Mariano Rajoy is to say with the bloke from Stratford, ‘A plague o’ both your houses’.

Published
Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont

However, I am intrigued by Peter Rhodes’ use of the issue of Catalan secession as another rod for the back of the European Union.

Its silence is perhaps unsurprising since it is an association of nation states. In particular I struggle to remember the article which Rhodes – a man of absolute consistency, I’m sure – wrote condemning the EU for its silence when plucky little Scotland was considering secession from the UK.

I do, however, remember that Rajoy gave support to David Cameron’s campaign to maintain the Union precisely because he feared that where Scotland went Catalonia might follow (probably with Galicia and the Basque Country in hot pursuit).

Rajoy might reasonably be miffed at Theresa May’s failure to reciprocate the support he gave to her predecessor and would be even more miffed if this (for the time being) EU member country followed Rhodes’ implicit suggestion.

Alan T Harrison

Walsall