First, to clarify: I love Spain. I love Catalonia. For over 20 years, on and off, I’ve lived and worked here – 10 years in Madrid, and 10 years in Barcelona, two of the greatest cities in the world. So I feel I can comment …

Not so long ago, Spain used to be cool. Very cool. Fiestas, football, food, fashion, fast and furious new flamenco, modern design and architecture, art and Almodóvar, Penélope and Paz, Banderas and Bardem, Nadal and Gasol, Domingo and Carreras – they all helped to make it cool – and, dare I say it, even Felipe, when he was still just a prince, or at least when he led out the Spanish Olympic team at the opening of the 1992 Games in Barcelona. He was cool then. Was.

Someone once told me that those good times in Spain were just ‘paper over the cracks’. I used to think it meant that behind the façade of all the fiestas, an economic hangover would always resurface, as it did in September 92 immediately after those Olympic Games, and again in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis, bursting the Spanish property bubble and much more. I never wanted to accept that the ‘paper over the cracks’ might refer to other sinister elements of Spanish society, such as the ghosts of Franco. I had a lot to learn, and I’m still learning.

Friends from Madrid and elsewhere in Spain sometimes ask why I support the independence of Catalonia. To be honest I don’t think I initially did, and I’m still not 100% sure that I do now – although I more than sympathise with their reasons for not wanting to remain part of Spain, and even more so every day. What I do support and always will, is the right to vote. I didn’t want Brexit but I thought the referendum was necessary. I didn’t (and don’t) want Scotland to leave the UK, but I thought they should at least have the right to vote on it (and to do so again, if necessary, in light of Brexit).

I spent the whole of Sunday 1 October 2017, the day of Catalonia’s ‘banned’ referendum, working in a newsroom in Barcelona, from 8am until very late that evening – helping on a Catalan and Spanish newspaper’s English edition. As the news, images and videos came in of all the police brutality against innocent citizens simply trying to vote, I also did a report for Sky News. On air, live during the interview, the newscaster from London told me that some of the images they were receiving from Barcelona were ‘too bloody’ to even broadcast. As the day went on, colleagues in the newsroom turned pale with shock. One told me that he was more upset by that day’s events than during the terrorist attack of 17 August; this was the Spanish police attacking its own citizens. I was shocked by how much it also upset me. I really felt for the people of Catalonia. By the time I got back to Sitges later that night, I was in floods of tears. I had to be consoled. I will never, ever forget the impact that day had on me.

The next day, I was incensed that the ‘Madrid media’ failed to report on the true events – unlike the international (and Catalan) media. It incensed me that the EU remained silent. It incensed me that Spain’s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, went on CNN and BBC stating that the images of police brutality were ‘fake news’. It incensed me and it still does.

Right now, at the start of 2018, ‘Brand Spain’ is no longer cool – far from it. Spain has lost its mojo. I hope that one day it gets it back – but things need to change, starting at the very top. The prime minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, is utterly inept. The way that his PP party (already stained with numerous corruption scandals) has handled the Catalan issue has been atrocious – not just an on-going international ‘PR disaster’, but totally wrong, and, I’d say, possibly illegal.

Despite saying he would, Rajoy failed to prevent a referendum in Catalonia from taking place in the first place. Refusing dialogue, the actions he did take, however, were absurd (and still are). Too numerous to list them all here, they range from threatening the Catalan parliament, department of economy and other institutions (as well as raiding some of those buildings), to searching the car boot of a printing company’s cleaner in search of ballot cards (even boasting that the police had managed to confiscate some). His government threatened Catalonia’s mayors, citizens and volunteers, banned posters and the media from running advertisements, stopped events and debates, clearly violating human rights and the freedom of speech. They shut down websites and apps, blocked telephone operators and even threatened to cut off the power. At a huge cost, they then sent a cartoon ship full of Civil Guard and Spanish Police to stop people from voting … but they failed. As for the gifts and awards to Juncker, or pointless trips to see Trump or May … just don’t get me started on all that.

Rajoy has never used ‘politics’ to try and resolve the Catalan issue at all. He’s simply used the judges and the courts … and continues to do so. Yesterday, the democratically elected Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, was ordered to remain in prison, still without trial. Meanwhile, the king of Spain’s brother-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, who was sentenced to over 6 years in prison yet is still ‘awaiting his appeal’, was photographed on holiday in Rome. I do not believe there is judicial independence in Spain – far from it. That is why Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and four other Catalan ministers are still in Brussels. They went there to seek justice, not to avoid it.

Rajoy’s application of article 155 to take control of Catalonia was wrong. He then called the elections for 21 December, but lost. Yes, he lost. There are political prisoners in Spain – that is a fact. They should be released immediately. Every day, things are getting worse. I believe Rajoy needs to take a big step back (or better still, resign – but he won’t, I know). Puigdemont should be allowed to return from Brussels without any threat of arrest. Then they all need to sit around the table with international mediators, and which is what should have happened last September. Dialogue is needed. A political solution is needed. Then Spain (and Catalonia) will get its mojo back …

The worst moments have been from the king of Spain, the EU, and the Spanish foreign minister. The moments are all linked – and they all stink, if you ask me. The king’s speech on 3^rd October was shocking, to say the least. I don’t need to relate all the details here – we all heard the speech or read about it afterwards. It didn’t even look or sound like a monarch’s speech – it felt dictatorial, with an almost dangerous thumping of fists. He didn’t say one word, not one, to condemn the police violence against the Catalan citizens innocently trying to vote on 1^st October. King Felipe could have been the hero; he could have defused the entire situation and become the monarch for all (more or less). He could have made a short and sweet speech, simply to say that he didn’t like what he’d seen on both sides, and that he’d expressed that to Rajoy and Puigdemont, and told them both to get a grip – but he didn’t, and he failed. He failed miserably. I think it is quite telling that he has not made any further long speeches on the matter – not even about the Catalan Parliament declaring independence on Friday 27^th October, nor on the Senate voting to apply Article 155, just hours later. A week before, however, on 20^th October, he did make a brief reference to the “unacceptable secession attempt” in Catalonia – on the night he gave an award to the EU – and another moment that stinks, in my opinion.

Because the EU has also failed miserably – Juncker and Tusk, specifically. Just to clarify: I didn’t vote for Brexit. I’ve always defended the concept of the European Union – but I’m seriously beginning to doubt all that now. As Alex Salmond brilliantly expressed it on LBC radio this weekend, the EU should be ashamed of its “guilty silence”. The former First Minister of Scotland said, “I don’t think the Catalan government should be in the dock, they’re pursuing the will of the Catalan people. I think the EU are in the dock on this … for their unwillingness to condemn outright the violence that we saw from the Spanish state on the people of Catalonia who were merely trying to exercise their right to vote.” He went on to say that the “guilty silence” applies to the UK government, too – yes, of course it does – and it’s because the UK is in a weak position in the Brexit negotiations.

On 20^th October, the night Felipe VI made his reference to Catalonia’s “unacceptable secession attempt”, he was presenting the EU with the ‘coveted’ Princess of Asturias Award for Concord. Oh, sure. It was just hours after the European Council meeting in Brussels, where Catalonia wasn’t even on the agenda – and where Rajoy managed to avoid even speaking about the ‘issue’, despite Tusk and Merkel reportedly asking him if he’d like to.

It stinks. It stinks that the EU accepted an award from the king of Spain, just hours after still refusing to officially condemn the police brutality against innocent Catalan citizens, nor push for further explanations on the matter. It stinks that the Belgian Embassy in Madrid came under threats and “tomamos nota” pressure from Rajoy’s government, merely because the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, had condemned the Spanish police violence, calling instead for dialogue and a ‘de-escalation’. And ditto, according to some reports, for Slovenia, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland and Holland. It stinks that Spain’s foreign minister has been on CNN and BBC, blatantly denying the police repression, calling the images ‘fake news’ and an ‘alternative reality’. It stinks that even today, that same foreign minister of a European state, can as good as pre-empt a non-existent and so far theoretical trial that Carles Puigdemont might have to face, and then even suggest the verdict, saying that “he might be in prison” at the time of the 21^st December elections in Catalonia. It stinks that Donald Tusk can only say that the situation in Catalonia is “concerning”, and that “there’s no space for any kind of mediation or international action in Spain”. It stinks that Juncker can only moan about there being more work and administrative headaches if there are any other “fractures” in Europe. It stinks that Spanish diplomats are blatantly dictating to other EU states “the lines we ask you to include” in their condemnation of Catalonia’s declaration of independence. It stinks. It all totally stinks.

With a chance to finally reflect on the tragic events of the past 12 days, the image that sticks in my mind, believe it or not, is of ‘Zoido’. Juan Ignacio Zoido, Spain’s Interior Minister, aged 59, originally from Seville, now based in Madrid. He’s a former judge, previously Mayor of Seville, and his father owned a bakery.

Zoido has that permanently full, heavy, stuffed appearance of a man who has just indulged in a long lunch. In fact he looks like he’s indulged in many long lunches, every day, over many years. On Monday 21st August, just after 2pm, he appeared on TV to give a press conference from the Ministry of Interior in Madrid, to give an update on the on-going investigation of the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils of 17^th & 18^th August. He didn’t look very happy. He looked as if he’d just been interrupted from the start of a long lunch (in Madrid, as I have experienced, those lunches start after 2pm and can sometimes run until 5pm). Zoido was missing out on the start of a nice one, I was sure. In the press conference, which was totally unnecessary, Zoido didn’t really speak, he sort of wheezed unhealthily.

I say the press conference was totally unnecessary, because it was. It overlapped with the end of a full and detailed press conference that had just been held in Barcelona, by the Catalan Interior Minister, Joaquim Forn, alongside the Justice Minister, Carles Mundó, and the head of the Mossos police, Josep Lluís Trapero. It was that eventful press conference that might be remembered more than anything for a Dutch journalist walking out, and Trapero’s soon-to-be-hashtag-immortalised response of ‘Bueno pues molt bé pues adiós’ (‘Good, well, great, so bye’). But in that press conference in Barcelona there had also been a thorough explanation of the on-going investigation of the terrorist attacks, with questions, too (asked and answered multi-lingually), and – more importantly – the issuing of the ‘wanted’ photos of the fugitive terrorist still at large at the time, Younes Abouyaaqoub, confirmed as the van driver in the attack on La Rambla.

At the end of Zoido’s short and unnecessary press conference in Madrid, however, in which he repeated some of the things already explained in detail in Barcelona, no questions were allowed. He held up a photo of the fugitive Abouyaaqoub – a totally different photo to the one issued in Barcelona – and then left the room. As if in a rush, or perhaps to be chauffeured to a restaurant where an apéritif was awaiting him. Just three hours later, the Mossos had tracked down Abouyaaqoub near the Catalan town of Subirats, and where they shot him dead in a vineyard, after he revealed he was wearing an explosive suicide belt (that later turned out to be fake).

My point here is … what was the point of Zoido in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils? Well, there was no point. There was no point in Zoido giving a press conference in Madrid on Monday 21^st August other than to deny the Mossos all the spotlight. There was no point in Zoido actually coming to Barcelona on the night of Thursday 17^th August, to sit in on anti-terrorist meetings, duplicating the work, nor wait 48 hours to make any comment about the attacks – and which initially was to simply announce that the terror alert across Spain would be kept at level 4 and not level 5. Worse, at noon on Saturday 19^th August, Zoido announced that the terrorist cell had already been ‘totally dismantled’ (two days before his lunchtime press conference in Madrid, in which he held up the fugitive’s photo!). The Catalan Interior Minister, Joaquim Forn, then had to ‘caution’ against calling the cell ‘completely dismantled’, explaining that it was an on-going investigation by the Mossos.

Over the past week, there have been many reports in prestigious international media, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Economist, all praising the work of the Catalan authorities, citizens and the Mossos police force (despite the Madrid media trying to discredit them all). The Guardian even headlined its article: ‘Catalonia’s response to terror shows it is ready for independence.’ But Catalonia didn’t need a terrorist attack to show it can run its own country, let alone have the right to hold a referendum.

Put all the politics, laws, appeals, rules of the Spanish Constitution, the banning of Catalan politicians from office, all the threats of ‘intervention in Catalonia’ or applying Article 155, or the Law of National Security, or turning Catalonia into a State of Exception or even a State of Emergency … put all that and more to one side, because none of it is working and the only people cashing in are the greedy lawyers.

No, the facts are these: Catalonia doesn’t need governing or controlling from Madrid – and Madrid can’t control or govern Catalonia from Madrid, because it is unnecessary and totally and utterly impractical (I don’t even know how they did it in the bad old days … by force and terror, I guess). I’ve said it before: it’s also a geographical (and time) issue. Spain and Catalonia are two different countries. Barcelona and Madrid are two different ‘countries’. It is an hour’s flight between the two cities; three hours at least on the train. I’ve lived and worked in Madrid for ten years (and I loved the city and still do), and I’ve lived and worked in Barcelona for ten years (ditto). Whilst in both cities, I have had the task of setting up (and trying to run) an office in the other city. I spent many, many years going backwards and forwards on the AVE train or the Puente Aereo air shuttle – and whatever route you choose, there’s no escaping: it is about four hours door to door, home to home, office to office. And believe me, when you arrive back in Madrid after “working at the Barcelona office” for a day or two … nobody wants to know … nobody cares … it’s as if you’ve just arrived back from London or Paris … and it is the same both ways. Why? Because it is a different country.

I’m not a great fan of Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy (nor Zoido, I suppose), but there’s something that I feel he was over-criticised for in the past 12 days: the fact that it took him 7 hours to arrive in Barcelona after the attacks on 17^th August. Perhaps he was on holiday in Galicia (where he’s from), I don’t know – and, yes, he would have had the use of the Spanish Air Force to get him to the Catalan capital – but it is still a long way. Too long and too far away to govern and control from Madrid. Simply put: there’s no need to control Catalonia from Madrid. And especially when the Catalans are more than capable of running their own country.