Well, that's a very fair point, and it's part of an ongoing political discussion here in the United Kingdom about how such things should be dealt with. Actually, one of the points that David Melding made very ably was about the specific position of the UK state in this issue, which is an important point, and one not to be forgotten.

However, I think there's much to suggest that there's much in modern Spain that we can also admire. Many people have talked about the relationship between Wales and Spain over the years. Many of us have had ancestors, quite close ancestors, who fought in Spain and were very proud of having done so, or communities in which people fought in Spain against fascism—absolutely—and are very proud to have done so. 

To transition from repressive dictatorship to a democratic nation and a member of the EU in such a short space of time and without the return to bitter and bloody civil war seen in its recent past is in many ways a lesson to others, and something for which Spain needs to be admired. But it's clear for all to see that what has happened in Catalonia over the last few weeks and months has been a model to absolutely no-one. The scenes we've witnessed and the images we've all observed have been shocking, and the hope now is that the future can be more positive than the past, and that in a democratic and constitutional process the people of Catalonia can decide their own fate, whatever that fate turns out to be, and that their voice and their decisions will be respected by the Spanish Government.