You won't be drowned in the Barcelona harbour

Tony Barber from the Financial Times fears that he will be drowned in the Barcelona harbour, or be thrown off the Edimburgh castle, for arguing that separatism is an exaggerated threat to Europe.
He doesn't really have to worry, at least about Barcelona. Many Catalans agree that separatism is not the best way forward, and propose a federal Spain in a federal Europe as a much more realistic and practical way of solving our problems. A number of Catalan intellectuals and professionals have argued just that in a recent manifesto. The main advantage of federalism is that it is scalable, it can be replicated in different countries (each with its tailored formula) and between countries. Separatism is obviously not scalable, you can't keep separating bits of countries, creating new borders, and at the same time pretending to be creating a united Europe.