Will Catalonia finally choose to break away?

To Madrid’s annoyance, the disputed independence plebiscite goes ahead today in Catalonia

People march during a Catalan pro-independence demonstration earlier this month in Barcelona Picture: Getty

The Catalan regional premier Artur Mas is a most unlikely nationalist hero. Urbane, educated, multilingual, he would have made a fine prime minister of Spain.

Now, as Catalonia goes to the polls today in a disputed plebiscite on independence, he is playing to the strengths of the uninspiring Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy. How did the once-confident, outward-looking, self-sufficient Catalonia he now leads become the bad guy, and how did the dull, centrist, ...