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Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Possibly, I agree that independence voters would be much more likely to turn up to vote, given the official stance that the vote was illegitimate and to be disregarded anyway... And the same may be true of earlier polls and studies.

Then again, one has to wonder why the Spanish government have had such a disproportionate and violent response if they actually believed that the vote would go their way? The sensible option would have been to let the vote go through and use it to point out that support for unity is high. Seems like they weren't confident in the result and - honestly - given the heavy handed response and police brutality that has gone on over the last few days from police forces drafted in from other regions - I would be very surprised if support for independence hasn't increased.

Surely no unionist citizen of Catalonia is sitting watching their friends, coworkers and neighbours being fly-kicked and bashed with batons by armoured Spanish police and thinking "Yeah, this is fine, probably deserve it".

Though actually nothing would surprise me these days. If it was the UK people would find a way to justify it. Brand the voters "thugs" or "rioters" or something... The usual script.

Maybe not but I also doubt its enough to convert them to independence overnight. Most probably see fault on both sides - the Spanish government for a heavy handed response and the Catalan government for being so obsessed with secession that they insisted on this vote when they knew that it would be declared illegal and that this would be the outcome. The fact it looks like they are planning to use this result to declare independence should seriously worry everyone in Spain that they are going to end up like Ukraine.