Different points of view!

Once again I say, what a difference a day makes! Yesterday's news reports had senior Labour Party figures admitting publicly that they has been mistaken in their assessment of their leader. After all, Labour had won seats in Thursday's election in places which had been Tory for centuries, palcex like Bedford, Portsmouth and Canterbury.

Owen Smith, who once lost a leadership challenge against Corbyn, said: “I was clearly wrong in feeling that Jeremy was unable to do this well and I think he’s proved me wrong and lots of people wrong and I take my hat off to him.” He went on, "I don’t know what Jeremy’s got but if we could bottle it and drink it we’d all be doing very well. We were hearing people who hadn’t voted for a long while voting Labour yesterday evening, who were inspired by the policies – and, it has to be said, by Jeremy – to vote Labour last night.” The cynic in me asks if they are vying for a place in the shadow cabinet. Or an eventual actual cabinet.

Meanwhile, in the other camp, everything is up in the air. There is pressure for Theresa May to resign but she appears to be hanging on in there, at least for the time being. Policies at home and on Brexit will need to be rethought. Some are saying that the single market and freedom of movement decisions are back in play, despite opposition from the Eurosceptics. Interesting times!

Interesting times for Spain too, as Catalonia has set a date on its referendum on independence: October 1. The Spanish government opposes the idea of secession but the Catalans have long considered themselves different from the rest of Spain. As with Scotland, I find myself wondering about the people who have moved there from other parts of the country, even if it was their family who did so a generation or two back. Do they consider themselves Catalan or Andalusian, for example? I use this example as many Andalusians have traditionally sought work and eventually settled in Catalonia? And do people of Catalan origin but now living in other parts of the country still consider themselves Catalan? After all, I know Scots and Welsh people, and especially Irish folk, who still insist on their Scotsness, Welshness and Irishness, even generations after the accent has long since been lost. Do those people still feel they have a right to a say in the decision on the independence or otherwise of the region?

How complicated life can be. This is perhaps why we should all consider ourselves European or, better still, citizens of the world!