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"No one plays football the way we do, the way we possess the ball, the technical ability of the players"

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Catalonia, created in March by MPs and Peers from all the political parties, held its first debate on Wednesday. Under the title ‘A Democratic Solution for Catalonia’, the event featured eight speakers, including SNP MP George Kerevan, who is one of the main promoters of the APPG, Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams, the Daily Mirror’s Political editor, Jason Beattie, and former Consul for Great Britain in Barcelona, Geoff Cowling, among others. “There is only one democratic solution and it is to let the people vote,” said Kerevan and warned that stopping them “is not the European way”. He also criticized the Spanish Government's decision to ban democratically-elected Catalan political representatives from public office. More than 150 people attended the event, hosted at Atlee Suit, at the British Parliament.

English and Scottish experts discussed this Tuesday the obstacles that Catalonia keeps facing in deciding its political future. University of Glasgow Professor, Neil Davidson, Researcher on Catalonia and ‘The Guardian’ Blogger, Luke Stobart, and the Chair of the Scottish National Party (SNP) ‘Friends of Catalonia’, David McDonald, took part in the debate, organised by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) in England within the framework of ‘Catalan Week’, a set of political and cultural events to explain Catalonia’s pro-independence process to the international audience. ‘Catalan Week’ in London will continue to organise activities throughout the week until Sunday, coinciding with Catalonia’s National Day celebrations in Farringdon.

Nearly 300 Catalans living in London have come out in support for the independence process and defended a “yes” vote in the forthcoming 27-S elections, set to be a ‘de facto’ plebiscite on independence. Carrying Catalan and pro-independence flags, they marched along the streets of the British capital passing by icons of the city such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Parliament and the London Eye. The rally was linked to the ‘Via Lliure cap a la República Catalana’ (‘Gateway to the Catalan Republic’), the mass demonstration that the civil society organisations Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural are organising for this coming Catalan National Day, on the 11^th of September. Once the demonstrators arrived at Kennington Park, they displayed the same mosaic that will be created in Barcelona on the 11^th of September. Catalan traditional human towers, ‘Castellers’, and ‘Sardanes’, Catalonia’s traditional dance, were also on display in the most festive part of the London rally.