defence and that the Spanish King was head of state, there would be no official rupture of the Spanish state and the EU could maintain that it was status quo ante. No boats would be rocked, no treaties called in question. Ripples but no big waves. In fact this is exactly what will happen, I believe. Mas has repeatedly avoided the term "independence" and instead now officially calls his Estat Propi proposal a "Catalan State", not a sovereign state. This could be fudged to everyone's satisfaction. What we're actually talking about, therefore, is devomax and not independence. The actual problem is that Spain sees Catalonia as the cow to milk, so "devomax" would be acceptable for Catalonia but not accepted by Spain although two regions of Spain already enjoy this kind of relationship. This debate has seen many euphemisms for "independence". In fact, when pressed in the Catalan parliament to be more concrete, Artur Mas said: "You can call it as you like, independence, own state, fulfilment of national aspirations. It all points to the same end." These are the spirits Mas is conjuring. Maybe the outcome will be different, but I guess someone has to come and break the spell first. I think you were correct when in your first comment you pointed at "thousands of young firebrands", to conclude: "The feeling will only get stronger and potentially more dangerous." Murphy: You mean they want to have their cake and eat it, too? I guess one can dream... My