Catalonia

Might there ever be in this century, anywhere in Europe, a case for serious political interference by an hereditary monarch? Spaniards can surely imagine it. In 1981 the (then) recently crowned King Juan Carlos II decisively rebuffed an attempted right-wing coup and in doing so secured the country’s newly instituted post-Franco democracy: a transition in which he had been deeply personally involved. The king did more than decline to support those who would overthrow democratic government; he took a lead in demanding that they be stopped. The settled account of these turbulent months in 1981 has perhaps still to be written and may be a little more complicated than the

OMG to Catalonia! (Geddit?; I’m quite proud of that. Pathetic, I know). A congenial centre-right and far left alliance in Catalonia should see Spain cease to exist as an entity within the next four years. Separatists now control the majority of seats in the Catalan parliament and public sentiment is broadly behind secession from the Castillians. With any luck the separatist sentiment will spread north of the border to Perpignan, to give the French a fright. Of course, it is not blood and thunder nationalism which has driven this wish to leave Spain behind, but economic self-interest. This is slightly disappointing for me, who rather wished that it had been