Everybody is always talking about regions breaking away in Europe. Why is this time different?
Because there's actually a good chance this time. More so than in the last 10 years.
I repeat myself. Why is this time different? 'More so than in the last 10 years.' is a pretty meaningless statement. Major separatist movements have existed in every region you have listed for two centuries. Compared to the Carlist Wars the current Catalonian movement is tiny.
Show some actual evidence that this is different then the past 200 years. With Scotland in particular I have seen recent polls showing only a third or less of the region supporting independence which is down from half the country supporting it thirty years ago.
I sincerely disagree that a half supported it thirty years ago. And about a third of Scots support independence, yes. But things may change over the next two years.
The reason why this time is different is that Catalonia, for the first time in decades, has a president who supports independence and is now in an economic crisis, despite being one of the wealthiest regions in Spain. It is also facing a complete block from the Spanish government who are basically saying "no, no independence referendums, not at all. We are also going to make sure that all your schoolchildren are aware of their Spanishness, so we are going to promote a hispanicisation program." That is not going to go down well with the Catalans, who held an enormous rally for independence which attracted over a million supporters. Things were not like this in Catalonia 10 years ago.
The SNP is hoping that doing things like...
- Lowering the voting age to 16 for this vote (16-18 year olds seem more likely to support independence)
- Delaying the vote into 2014 so that Scottish people feel more angry about the current government that has barely any Scottish component
- Holding the vote on the anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn
- Using a hilariously leading question like "Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?"
Will be enough to swing the vote in their favour. Current indications don't seem to suggest that will be the case though. Although there's another two years for the Conservatives to majorly piss off Scotland, so who knows.
No, not just the SNP. That is incorrect. The SSP and the Green Party both support these proposals, and form something we should be referring to as the Yes Campaign. It is a common practise in the British-establishment-allied media e.g. most newspapers, television stations etc to reduce either the thousands of Scots who support independence or the pro-independence groups as a whole to the SNP or Alex Salmond, thereby portraying them as a sort of crazy fringe group that somehow managed to get in control of the country, applying policies that nobody wants.
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