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Owen Jones, Paul Mason and countless others on the UK far left went to Catalonia and took the side of the ethno-nationalists. They wrote and spoke breathlessly about a popular uprising against a central government that had failed to cast off the shadow of Franco and the Falange.
In doing so, they failed to notice that the people they were offering support to were a privileged elite who had controlled Catalonia - politically, linguistically, socially and culturally - for close to 40 years, and whose leaders were nepotistic and often deeply corrupt.
Jones, Mason and co fell for the separatist agenda hook, line and sinker because they saw people who looked like them, had similar backgrounds and knew how to push their buttons. Essentially, they were political activist looking for stories to confirm their pre-existing opinions.
What is so unforgivable about Jones, Mason and the rest of the UK far left who breezed into Spain is that they helped create the conditions that allowed Vox to rise. Vox reacted not only to what was happening in Catalonia, but also to how it was being portrayed outside of Spain.
Jones, Mason & co uncritically repeated a narrative of an oppressed people being denied basic freedoms by a repressive, anti-democratic state. Spanish people saw that and, quite understandably, were enraged. That does not excuse backing Vox, but it explains a whole lot about it.
The moral of the story is that "oppression" tourism and the breathless repetition of outright lies and distortions about a progressive, open, democratic state have consequences. It is only because Spain is the country it is that the hard right went backwards on Sunday.
