I share your sentiment here Neil. It's sad to see a government respond to the will of the people with such force. As carlosdaniel noted in the comment above, Catalonia is a productive region and the establishment, as per usual, will do what is necessary to try and maintain its control over these people.

Business as usual for the Swamp creatures (it seems there are swamps all over the world that need cleaning!). I'm not surprised at all.