I very strongly believe that if a public vote was allowed asking all the people who are eligible to vote in the UK
"Should the death penalty be brought back for terrorists, mass murderers, child killers and emergency service personnel?" the answer would be a resounding "Execute them." This, of course, will never happen and the reason is that in the UK, as in most of Europe, the decision makers i.e. politicians and more increasingly unelected bureaucrats, believe they know better and it is their God-given right to rule.
Referenda. The challenges
Running a country by referenda poses difficulties.
Too expensive and time-consuming to ask more than a few questions per year. People exploit it, take Nicola Sturgeon re Scottish Independence and the Liberal Democrats and others re Brexit. They lose and immediately demand a second go. Lose that and what then? Is it best of five? Those issues could be resolved by simply saying referendums are only held on issues that have an expressed desire of say 10% of the voting population in favour (so about 4 million people in the UK), and no further referendums will be allowed on the issue before two decades of the original results being implemented have passed.
The politicians' favourite way around the issue is to explain, to us thick people, that they are our representatives, elected to use their brains and act on their beliefs - and to some extent, with regard to the day to day questions of government, that is true.
But it becomes spurious when they try to use it to override the clearly expressed wishes of the majority. That is why the vote in Parliament over the Brexit outcome was wrong, even though it strengthened the leave voters hand. The will of a majority of 650 MP's should never have been allowed to risk overturning the expressed views of more than 32 million people.
It was a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the true basis of democracy and the shameless advocates of it knew this.
Let the Catalans speak
That same overriding belief that the masters tell the ordinary people what to do, is the root cause of the terrible problems that have already happened in Catalonia and are set to get worse.
Many Catalans want Catalonia to become an independent country. They feel they subsidise the Spanish economy to a ridiculous degree and are treated as second-class citizens. The history of conflict between Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia and Madrid, the capital of Spain, goes back many decades to the Spanish Civil War and the desire to depart from the hated rule of Spain is long-held and slow-burning through the beautiful Catalan countryside.
Spain has long held this desire in contempt, as they have the similar wishes of many of the Basque population on the other side of Spain. They have made no attempt at compromise and simply quote the Spanish Constitution that makes such separation illegal to the protestors.
This is patently foolish as the people who want to leave already, in turn, hold the Spanish Constitution in contempt.
Backing from the establishment of course
Of course, most of the ruling elite of Europe back this view. Mrs May the UK Prime Minister saw fit to explain that the UK backs Spain and would not recognise Catalonia after its leaders eventually reacted to Spanish Government heavy-handedness by declaring Catalonia to be independent. An odd decision as she supported the Scottish referendum. The threat to the self-serving leaders of the EU is obvious. More damned little people expressing their views! Never! We will crush them! Merkel sees more financial strain for Germany, Macron sees more threats to his ever more closely integrated European dream, so of course, they both back Tusk, Juncker and co in blocking Catalans having a voice.
I have no idea which way the majority of Catalans feel. Masses strongly want to remain united as Spanish. I have seen evidence however that the strong arm repression and control have pushed many people on both sides into supporting the demand for a referendum so that Catalans can choose the direction in which their own future lies.
Respect real democracy or we all suffer the consequences
In the end, people should have their say in how they want their own identified piece of land to be run. Refusing this basic right finalised the fate of Brexit. In China, brutal repression is still working, but the problem still festers under the surface. It will explode one day. North Korea may explode any minute now.
Democracy boils down to allowing government by all the eligible members of a state. The elected (or unelected) representatives still only have one vote in a referendum and that is why they hate allowing them.
In the end, however, Catalonians must be allowed the genuine choice or the outcomes will be dreadful.
As the greatest European leader Winston Churchill once said: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."
