Spain in crisis - Violence must be averted

Conversations about what might happen next in Spain and Catalonia now feature frightening references to the prospect of another bloody, disastrous civil war.

At this remove, such a possibility — a probability, according to former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind — seems utterly insane. It is not as if Catalonians are oppressed, hungry,

denied the basic protections and privileges of living in a European democracy.