Catalan conceit

I BELIEVE that if you support Scottish independence from the rest of the UK, considerations of whether you would be better or worse off financially as a result should really play a quite minor role in your thinking.

Therefore, it is most dispiriting to see Alex Orr (Letters, 1 
October) praising the Catalans for the recent increase in support there for independence from Spain – which has, as he must well know, been driven by the hardships being endured by the majority of those living on the Iberian peninsula.

Catalonia is wealthy. Rather than cutting and running, Catalonians should be showing solidarity with Los Indignados of the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. “Everyone for themselves” is never an attractive moral philosophy – and it’s never nice to kick someone when they’re down.

Lawrence Marshall

King’s Road

Portobello, Edinburgh