By accident, I came across an article about Catalonia written by a Scot. Most articles about Catalonia either have a political bias or are not based on fact. But the article I came across today I found to be extremely well balanced and well researched. You can read it here (link is no longer accessible).
The only things I would disagree with the author on are:
He shouldn’t really say that Catalans call the Spanish language castellano. Just say Castilian. Many Catalans actually call it castellà (the cognate of castellano in Catalan).
He says that “written Catalan is now so dominant in Catalonia”. A trip to any bookshop or newspaper stand would show that, while Catalan is very much alive, it is not dominant.
He claims that the word nationality “is deployed not just by political nationalists but by unionists who argue that a State with solid historical foundations can combine different but over-lapping patriotisms.” While this may be true in the UK, this is not true in Spain: the Catalan parliament recently approved a new Statute of Autonomy stating that “Catalonia is a nation”, but when the Statute passed through the Spanish parliament, the “unionists” had it removed. This is in stark contrast to the British Conservative and Unionist Party (the official name of the British Conservative Party), which has no issue with referring to the constituent countries of the United Kingdom as nations.
Nevertheless, overall this is a good analysis, and I recommend it to any British readers interested in understanding a little bit more about Catalonia.
I fully disagree with your comments. But that was to be expected. I guess your partner must be a true catalan nationalist; otherwise, I am surprised the system has managed to brainwash you so well. (Or shouldn´t I be?)
My partner? I’m afraid I’m single mate.