Catalonia

[duke63]

No idea on the politics of it all, seems like more division to me but their flag must rank as one of the best in the world.

[D41]

Looks like the flag of Texas

[Kwacky]

I love the way the King of Spain has gone on national TV to say that the election is illegal and will be ignored.

Who voted you in matey?

The whole thing is a farce. Just over 50% of those in the region want independence. The election was nothing more than a publicity stunt, which worked. The Spaniards should have left them to it and ignored it.

[D41]

Why do they want independence??

[Kwacky]

No idea to be honest. I guess they see themselves as different to being Spanish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalonia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jack]

the Catalans have a separate culture and language to the rest of Spain , they region is one of Spains wealthiest and contributes what the Catalans think is an unfair amount to the economy of spain as whole while getting very little back in the way of services etc , they would be better off on their own in the current economic situation , under the UN convention of Human Rights they have the right of self determination as do the Basques and other peoples with a separate language and culture . Many european countries are historically speaking fairly new , Germany never existed until 1871 , Spain was unified in 1492 although like france until fairly recently was run by regional government .

[duke63]

The Spanish have a long history of wanting to kill their own.

Reading a great book at the moment called 'Prisoners of Geography' which seeks to explain how many countries have evolved based on the surrounding geography.

Who would have thunk that the problems of the middle east and Africa are mainly down to the British and French deciding on what constitutes a nation by drawing lines on a map rather taking into account the peoples and tribes living within.

[Kwacky]

We used to be very good at telling other people what to do.

[D41]

And of course these countries/regions would have otherwise flourished without outside influence, I'm sure.

[Kwacky]

If you're bored there are great articles about the effect European counties had and continue to have on places like Nigeria, who are massively gifted when it comes to natural resources. We've done a good job in keeping them away from doing well for themselves.

[D41]

I'm not bored, merely boring

[duke63]

Iran will never forgive the British for the way we stole their oil.

[Kwacky]

Or using them to test our blanket bombing techniques.

[D41]

That's OK....I'll never forgive them for the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

We're even.

[StMarks]

the Catalans have a separate culture and language to the rest of Spain , they region is one of Spains wealthiest and contributes what the Catalans think is an unfair amount to the economy of spain as whole while getting very little back in the way of services etc , they would be better off on their own in the current economic situation , under the UN convention of Human Rights they have the right of self determination as do the Basques and other peoples with a separate language and culture . Many european countries are historically speaking fairly new , Germany never existed until 1871 , Spain was unified in 1492 although like france until fairly recently was run by regional government .

Spot on ^

As I've mentioned before my baby brother lives & works in Barcelona. His wife & family are Catalan.
Unlike the Basques, the Catalans do not have a reputation for fundamentalist nationalism. However they could be compare to the Germans in Europe in so much as they seem to contribute more than they benefit from their affinity with the rest of Spain

[StMarks]

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