Rob Marchant compares the case and chances of Scottish independence with its constitutional cousin, Catalonia.
Rob Marchant is a management and communications consultant, blogger and eco-entrepreneur; he previously worked as a Labour party senior manager through the 2001 and 2005 general elections. He blogs at The Centre Left
“Seismic shift”, “game-changer”, and other clichés have been used to describe the SNP’s win last Thursday. It was certainly an important result and, up until the final weeks, a rather unexpected one. It has also led to a number of reaction pieces, ranging from the Telegraph’s alarmist “Don’t let the Union drift apart”; to LFF’s “sleepwalking to separation”; to Simon Jenkins’ plain silly, knee-jerk calls for independence which seemed to pass over entirely the wide and varied emotions among Scots about the idea.
However, emotive though the issue is, perhaps we should try and take a cooler look at the situation. It is, of course, conceivable that it could lead to independence: but, without being complacent, we should also be aware that we are quite likely a long way from that.
In evidence, I should like to call arguably Scotland’s closest constitutional cousin: Catalonia. The Scots have, long before now, taken it as one of their reference points for devolution, and I believe now is a good time to take a closer look: particularly at how it has evolved since its inception. It is not identical, but it is similar and it is twenty years further down the line than Scotland.
I declare an interest here: my wife and all my in-laws were either born, or grew up in, Catalonia. The political, historical, economic and cultural landscapes testify to its nationalism being very strong indeed: there are a number of ways in which Catalans might rationally be expected to have a stronger separatist fervour than Scots. It’s worth listing the reasons.
First, they have their own language, and it’s not a minority sport as, arguably, Welsh, Breton or Basque is, not to mention Scots Gaelic. Perhaps unknown to most Brits, practically all Catalans not only can speak it, but do so on a daily basis and their children are schooled in it. It is also the language of the public sector in Catalonia; the Generalitat, an autonomous government, equivalent to the Scottish parliament, and all other ancillary bodies. So much is it spoken by Catalonia’s 9 million souls, in fact, that it has been close to achieving recognition as an official EU language.
Second, the Catalan people were oppressed by a fascist state for over forty years, which in turn led to a surge of nationalism once democracy arrived. Now, although conceivably some Scots might speak of oppression by the British state, it’s not being churlish to say that there is scant comparison between the two, during the last century at least. The Francoist state forbade Catalans to speak their own language, besieged their capital city and executed their politicians and folk heroes.
Third, they arguably have more to gain economically from independence. Since the industrial revolution, Catalonia has formed the heart of industrial Spain and has a contribution to GDP significantly above the average. Scotland cannot claim this, although there is usually a dispute about the inclusion of offshore oilfields in any calculation of Scottish GDP.
Finally Catalonia, unlike Scotland, has been run by a nationalist party (CiU) for almost all its thirty years of autonomy, apart from a brief interlude of seven years of coalition. It’s not as if they haven’t had a chance to put their case.
Despite all these reasons, the Catalans have never voted for independence. When they won again last year, CiU did not even have a referendum in its manifesto. And why? For the simple reason that Catalans don’t want it. They will complain about Spain, they will fight for a better share with Madrid, but after all of that, Catalan businessmen and most Catalan people think their future looks much better within a loosely-integrated Spain than the alternative: on their own in the world, albeit probably under an EU umbrella.
While all this in no way makes Scottish independence impossible – indeed, the Unionists (in the broadest sense) among us should be making the case otherwise for all we are worth – it is, perhaps, wise to keep a sense of proportion. The most obvious explanation for the current panic about Alex Salmond let loose on our devolved Parliament may simply be that, at twelve years, Scotland is still a very immature autonomy, and we’re just not used to it.
Politicians are panicking partly because they’re not used to it either, and partly for show. Neither Labour nor the Tories wants independence to happen on their watch. Ultimately – and obviously – the people of Scotland will be the ones who decide. As they should.
But when you take the Catalan example, what is in fact rather extraordinary, is not that Scotland has a nationalist government, but the reverse: that achieving the first majority nationalist government in Scotland has taken quite this long. Also striking is the fact that, even after that length of time and in arguably more fertile conditions, Catalonia still hasn’t even come close to independence.
So, as we in Labour panic about Salmond and his referendum (honestly, even Salmond himself is so unsure of the result he has kicked it into the long grass for later in the parliament), we should focus on perhaps more important things: rebuilding our party in Scotland to provide a sensible, rational alternative, which respects the desires of the Scottish people for autonomy. And not, one sincerely hopes, trying to ape radically nationalist policies, hoping that this will make us look responsive. It won’t. It will make us look desperate; it will alienate.
We need to be aware that the Nats’ appeal to Scots is a lot broader than just independence, as is that of the CiU to Catalans. A smart Salmond may well see an underlying trend unfavourable to independence, and see fit to transform his into a modern party which is still nationalistic, but which operates within the Union.
And, those of us who are Unionists, we could certainly do worse than examine further the evolution of Catalonia as a model which has, so far, stood well the test of time.
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21 Responses to “Scottish independence: time for a homage to Catalonia?”
Rob Marchant
RT @JohnRentoul: Catalonia example suggests Scottish separation unimminent @rob_marchant http://bit.ly/lkUAWt
Cal dir certes coses
Escòcia que s'emmiralla en Catalunya, Catalunya que ho fa en Escòcia: Si mireu dintre veureu milers de països lliures… http://j.mp/jqXfsK
Joan
Escòcia que s'emmiralla en Catalunya, Catalunya que ho fa en Escòcia: Si mireu dintre veureu milers de països lliures… http://j.mp/jqXfsK
Esteve
Here’s my view of the Catalan case. I am a Catalan, my mother tongue is Catalan and I am for independence.
In the article, the author says we have never voted for independence. That is true, but we also haven’t voted against it. Certainly, the majorities are uncertain on independence and would ultimately reject it, but Catalan society is tremendously complex and polihedral. You can’t understand Catalunya without bearing in mind immigration. In the Franco years, 3,3 million spainiards came to work and live in Catalonia. The vast majority of them were unschooled, uneducated and came from culturally poor societies like Andalusia, Extremadura or Murcia. They settled in this country under fascist protection, they were literally encouraged to leave their land to work in some factory in Catalonia. This was done for 3 main reasons:
1.To satisfy the Catalan burgeoise who needed lots cheap labor for the hardest working places.
2.To create a majority of non-Catalan speakers that would overtake the native Catalan speakers, extend Spanish everywhere whilst banning the local language, reducing it to something folkloric which only countrymen would speak.
3.To impover Catalan culture/identity which was significantly richer than in Spain’s. During the II Republic, Catalonia’s society was overwhelmingly left-wing and for a Catalan State. Communists and Anarchists ruled the country for a couple of years, which was seen as a major threat for Franco. Spanish immigrants came with no defined ideals, no cultural heritage, most of them couldn’t write or read. Most of them couldn’t be bothered to learn Catalan language since it was banned and it could only be heard in close circles in Universities and similar places linked to “knowledge”.
It should be noted that those 3,3 million spaniards who came here rapidly outnumbered Catalans. It is estimated that by the end of the Spanish Civil War, slightly less than 3 million Catalans were alive. Immigrants statistically reproduced more and had lots of children in contrast to actual Catalans, hence the current situation in Catalonia where Spanish is the most spoken language because of immigration.
Since language creates identity, most descendants of those vast immigration fluxes feel Spanish as they arguably “are” Spanish and have no ties with Catalonia. Many of them despise Catalan because they cannot understand it and can’t feel attached to it; moreover they see it as a language that makes them different and makes them realize they are not from here.
So, having briefly explained that background, one that most of us have to live with, it is not strange that Catalans are still not for independence since most of them can’t be, in my opinion, considered as Catalans and wouldn’t vote against their homeland. They only see Spain as their country.
Also note the higher classes in Catalunya have been traditionally unionist, especially since the II Republic uprise of communism, sindicalism and anarchism which represented a threat to their interests and sometimes even to their lives. However, this tendency is slowly changing in the last years since Spain is a bad business in general; millions of € daily leave for Spain to never come back and our market is no longer Spain-dependant; we have internationalized our market. Independence extends at the rate people realize about the crazy looting going on by Madrid.
Even so, independence is mostly tied to cultural identity. Most Catalan speakers will see independence as a hope for the future, since they have struggled across Franco and the restless repressions by Spain since the fall of Barcelona in 1714. If you look at a map of the places where independence gains support, you will note that unionism is a majority in the Barcelona Industrial Belt, the Tarragona industrial belt and other spanish immigrant nuclei.
CiU hasn’t proposed a referendum because they know these facts. Why hold a referendum you are going to lose? They are probably waiting for a moment when polls reflect a change in Catalan society. These changes are already happening and have speeded up since the Spanish Constitutional Court banned Catalunya’s Autonomy Statute and manipulated it’s key aspects (finance, language policies, etc). President Artur Mas has declared himself independentist, just like Jordi Pujol. Pujol was a symbol of Spanish unionism back in the day and a reference point for Catalans. His change has made many minds rethink their position.
Scotland’s case is equal on the big picture, but our details and specific traits differ. However, for historic and cultural justice, it should gain indepence too and I hope it does.
Cheers!
Angus McLellan
Many thanks to Rob for replying. I still think I am on much safer ground with my prediction of a referendum before 2016 than Rob is with his “soft-pedal the referendum” one.
Alex Salmond made clear statements on this during and since the election. And even if there were much space to wriggle on this point, I am not convinced that Salmond would make use of it. We need only look at the tactics he adopted in the 2007 election – planning his return to the Scottish Parliament by standing in a safe LibDem seat – to see that he’s a man who’ll take a gamble. The opposition in Scotland will never be weaker than in the coming years. If not now, when?