To impose direct rule on a restive region is a powerful political threat and for that reason should always be a last resort. Of course, the options available to Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy to keep the country together are getting fewer and fewer. But unlike, say, Northern Ireland where internal power struggles have prompted calls for an intervention from London, the Catalan crisis is a direct dispute between the region and central government. To impose direct rule on Catalonia – essentially reversing the devolution process that’s been happening for years – will only serve to bolster the secessionist argument that Madrid doesn’t listen. A government spokesperson said any return to direct rule was a case of taking “a scalpel not an axe” to the powers that the Catalan regional government has – right now either way looks like a blunt instrument.