The dream of European unity is fracturing like a dream breaking into the shards of memory one has slowly upon waking, when the fragments grow soluble and dissolve into an often harsh acidic reality. Europe is a continent where hundreds of miles equal a world away in differences between language or culture, split into largely varying regional customs, one example is in England, the counties of Devon and Cornwall differ on whether one puts jam or cream into a scone first. A very English dilemma to an archetypal English afternoon tea, but it is a small example of the alterations in places very close to one another and of course Devon does not have its own language like Cornwall, despite the two counties being side by side. Bullfighting differs in the South of France widely from its practice in Spain; French bullfighting shares more in common with bull runs of Spain, spectators dash across the rings and touch the bull, the aim is to get across the arena unharmed. Similarly, a raging bull seems a fitting description for the rage of Spain's loss of the wealthiest of its autonomous regions and the wider implications that holds for a Europe teeming with disparate identities wishing to stay that way.

The horns Antonio Gaudi's magnum opus, the cathedral of La Sagrada Familia, rises above a Barcelona that awaits a potentially huge sea change in its destiny, timeless in its seemingly endless construction as the enduring Mount Tibidabo and the constant roiling of the Mediterranean Sea. Tomorrow, October 1st, marks an event the Spanish government had never believed or dared hope, was possible, a referendum on Catalan independence from Spain. Britain, seen as the villain of Europe since at least the Norman Conquest - opening those old wounds with Brexit - provided Gibraltar, The Falklands, and Scotland with an opportunity to vote on independence in 2002, 2013 and 2014 respectively. The vote in favour of remaining part of the UK was over 98% in Gibraltar and The Falklands (with the vote being close to 99% in 2002), although the Scottish referendum result came much closer than the previous two, with 55% favouring to stay in the UK.

No section of British society seems more to breed a stronger type of Remoaner than the Scottish government. One of their main whinges was that Westminster guaranteed the SNP in Edinburgh's Holyrood parliament that Scotland's place in the European Union remained assured, so when the closest run referendum in 15 years pulled the UK out of the European Union occurred, it threw the Scots. The Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, claims that a second Independence referendum is "back on the table," yet dates for this vote remain for now as vague as alleged sightings of the Loch Ness Monster!

Whereas Scottish independence always remains a divisive issue and enthusiasm seems like its waning; however, a similar desire has existed in the Catalonian region for decades and not just there. The neighbouring Basque region produced the separatist movement ETA that launched terrorist attacks in Spain, indicating that the Iberian Peninsula remains fractious 40 plus years after the death of Francisco Franco. The dream of European integration comes from a drive to heal old wounds that threatened to grow gangrenous in the 1940s, historical lesions of division harking back to the fall of the Roman Empire. A year before the Treaty of Rome formed the European Economic Area that eventually evolved into the EU; the Eurovision Song Contest celebrated the establishment of the European Broadcast Union, aiming to set closer ties throughout a recently war-ravaged continent, with music and celebration. Celebratory lights now grow dim as Angela Merkel's open door policy causes the rich tapestry of Europe to fray and the certainty of celebrating the real diversity of Europe the EU has unravelled. It remains uncertain the kind of destiny Catalonia has outside of Spain, as when talk of Scottish independence reared again following Brexit, one of the main concerns was whether Scotland could enter the EU as an independent nation because of the size of its GDP.

Last year, Scotland's GDP stood at $216 billion, Catalonia's, $255 billion, not much of a gulf exists in the wealth of these two areas, so what's in store for the future of the EU?