HOW sad it was to see the Spanish police “at war” with the Catalan people over their illegal vote on a separate Catalan state.

It reminded me of our police who were instructed by our government to quash the miners’ strike in the 1980s.

Ugly scenes repeated on the instructions of a government against its own people with the whole world watching.

Spain is a very devolved country, with 17 autonomous regions.

My son had an apartment in southern France, 30 miles from the Spanish border and the people there did not consider themselves French, but Catalan, the Catalan flag being the most common flag flown, not the French tricolor.

In many countries of the world the border is only a line on a map. Europe is no exception.

Of course the Spanish government won’t allow Catalan to break away.

Other regions would follow with their request, especially the Basques.

How convenient it is for the EU to distance themselves from events when it suits them.

They consider the Catalan affair an internal matter to Spain.

The EU cannot get regions within countries of Europe to live in harmony, yet persist with their dream of a United States of Europe.

People want to be what they are, not what governments tell them they have to be, and Britain is no exception, hence the vote to leave the EU.

It looks as if their dream is just that - a dream.

W Harrison, St Oswald’s Road, York