The most overt example of the Establishment's genocide of the Cornish people is in the accelerating trend to establish an amorphous South West region of England which comprises 6 English shire counties and…. the Duchy of Cornwall. This trend is facilitated by their head-in-the-sand refusal to acknowledge our Cornish existence as a people having a socio-political history which is distinct from that of our English neighbours. Their mindless goal is supported by a 50 year political, commercial and media process/campaign of fragmenting Cornish people's relationship with their national territory. This is, of course, a trend and process which has actively been supported by, what passes for a Cornish (sic) Administration at Truro, "Cornwall county Council" and, in the main, acquiesced to by our elected representatives, wherever they sit!
The inevitable next stage of this process, following devolved assemblies to other Celtic regions of the United Kingdom, will be calls to establish regional assemblies for English regions. On the 27th May 2000, the Western Morning News [an English Regional newspaper purporting to be "The Voice of the Westcountry"] printed a report, "Campaign for devolved power", by Jason Groves, London Editor, advising of the setting up of various constitutional conventions [remember Scotland?]. The report opened with:
"SENIOR figures in the church and universities in the Westcountry are being approached to lead a new campaign to establish regional government in the South West.Supporters of the idea of devolved government are hoping to launch a "constitutional convention" in Exeter in July to increase pressure on the Government to introduce regional governance and to look at how it might be set up.
Similar bodies have already been set up in the North East, the North West, the West Midlands and Yorkshire. The conventions are made up of local politicians, business people, trade unionists and representatives of voluntary groups, although all are chaired by local bishops. The move comes amid signs that New Labour is likely to renew its commitment to regional government in its next General Election manifesto.
But the plans are likely to run into stiff opposition in some parts of the Westcountry, where there is continuing concern about the Government's definition of the South West as a seven-county region stretching from the Isles of Scilly to Swindon.
Andrew George, Lib Dem MP for St Ives, who has campaigned for Cornwall to be seen as a distinct region in its own right, said: "The Government's definition of the South West is a crass, stupid mistake. To try and take this synthetic approach further would be pointless and would risk annihilating the regional identities that do exist. ……."
The concept of devolved assemblies to 'coherent' regions of England is undoubtedly an essential move forward in establishing a more democratic system of government within the United Kingdom. Tyr-Gwyr-Gweryn demands, however, that Cornish Rights are properly respected in any formulation of devolved assemblies and that we repeat the demand that the only region for Cornwall is Cornwall itself. A South West region of England which seeks to include the Duchy of Cornwall both further marginalises the Cornish people whilst simultaneously imposing a more polarised 'English' power-base over us. What the English do to England is their own business but what the English do to the Cornish, in the absence of Cornish political accommodation, will always remain a matter for disagreement, reaction and, ultimately, reconciliation and redress.
The Western Morning News carried an article in the issue for the 6th June from Andrew George MP. with an introductory editorial comment and banner headline as follows:
"As efforts to bring devolution to the South West gather pace, Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, argues that you cannot have regional government unless you first have a coherent region.""South West region doesn't exist says MP"
The article was faithfully reproduced from the original with minimal editing. I include below, however, the text of the original submission as submitted by Andrew George MP.:
"A REGION THAT OFFERS ANTISEPTIC OBLIVION"
News that "senior figures ... are being approached to lead a new campaign to establish regional government in the South West" (WMN 27th May 2000) was an appropriately light story for a Bank Holiday weekend.
However, my concern is that the now routine resounding disinterest and apathy with which the general populace of this non-existent region respond may only serve to encourage the minor empire builders and anoraks behind this mindless nonsense.
Most normal folk demonstrate a level of enthusiasm and patriotism for the "South West Region" (sic) which extends to hardly being able to stifle a yawn at the mere hint of the subject being mentioned.
True, the Government failed to honour its pre-election promise of setting up a Cornish Development Agency, to set up a seven counties Development Agency for the South West, but this is primarily a functional institution: either it succeeds in helping local economic development projects with Professional support and money or fails by masquerading as a "strategic" entity which attempts to generate a synthetic regional identity. Whether it be based in Exeter, Bristol or Birmingham for that matter is largely immaterial.
True again, a Regional Chamber has been established, but this is merely a talking shop; a pleasant and agreeable talking shop with pleasant and agreeable people, but a talking shop nonetheless.
That some are getting so carried away with this that they genuinely believe public torpor can be interpreted as enthusiasm to set up directly elected regional bodies with real decision-making powers has, I concede, proven how wrong I was.
I admit to being a member of the "if we ignore them they'll probably go away" brigade but I hadn't properly accounted for the speed at which the vacuum left by disinterest is filled by nonsense unless, in the meantime, common sense prevails.
Many had thought that the idea of setting up regional government for an invented South West of England as being so laughable and absurd as not to be worth honouring with the effort of the intellectual drubbing it deserves. This is probably still the case but perhaps now a clearer demolition of these proposals needs to be completed before they gain any crumbs of serious currency.
Indeed, readers may find it interesting that, as an enthusiastic decentralist, I attended the recent House of Commons launch of the new Campaign for the English Regions in order to, in my view, gently point out what was bad in an otherwise good cause.
The campaigns for directly elected Regional Assemblies in Yorkshire, the North East and the North West were well underway and we were told that the East Midlands was coming along well too.
The logic was compelling. Wales, Scotland (to an extent) Northern Ireland and London had secured devolved power so now it was the time for the Regions of England.
The pressing questions on everyone's mind was about when the Assemblies could be set up, what powers they would have and how they would relate to local government, quangos and so on. It was all very exciting stuff.
The evangelists for the Government's standardised regions were astride their high horses on the cusp of history in the making.
Amongst all this froth, lather and mutual congratulation I have to admit that I felt like the boy who pointed out that the Emperor has no clothes. I didn't intend to be churlish, but ...
"What else do we do if the Region doesn't actually exist?"The question was met with stunned incomprehension. To these Regional zealots it was like asking whether we could redefine the boundaries of God.I suppose, I have to acknowledge, that the good people of Yorkshire are lucky. The Government Region defined for bureaucratic convenience happened to more or less coincide with a region with its own recognisable identity and so it was for others - some to a lesser or possibly greater extent.
But for Cornwall and Scilly the so-called South West is a Soviet-style construction for those people who are happy to be dragooned into a soul-less bureaucracy without a shred of identity and which inspires only career politicians going nowhere and civil servants seeking to be put out to grass.
Meanwhile, back at the Commons launch the incredulous Campaign enthusiasts thought I should be asking about how soon a South West Campaign could be started.
I decided to try again. I said slowly:
"The South West doesn't exist, other than as a figment of a diseased imagination or a bureaucrat suffering impersonal boundaryitis. Why destroy a region with a unifying identity (i.e. Cornwall) only to create a synthetic region without one?"In fact, those of us who are concerned about the gathering apathy and low turn outs at election time have a double reason not to give the creation of standardised regions a single crumb of comfort or encouragement. The pathetically low turn out at the last local elections would surely be eclipsed by reaching new heights of lethargy amongst an unimpressed electorate faced with a bland uniform and characterless region.If we were to decentralise some powers from an over centralised state we should do so to places and regions which actually exist, to territories about which people actually give a damn.
For Cornwall, the only region is Cornwall (and Scilly, if it were to chose to come on board, but have its own distinctiveness respected). But such ideas face such established misunderstandings it's difficult to take so called "conventional wisdom" much beyond a mindless "base camp".
The first criticism is always that of dismissiveness or to diminish the concept; i.e. "don't be silly"; "you can't be serious". But if you look at the alternatives it is the only serious option available.
Secondly, we'll be told that such a notion would be inconvenient; i.e. "it's too late"; "it would cause too many problems"; "where would it leave everybody else?" But this fails to recognise that decentralisation can be untidy. A settlement, which reflects community, identity and idiosyncrasy, doesn't neatly fall into uniform bureaucratic patterns.
The third criticism is that Cornwall is too small. It has a population of about half a million when the standardised regions are supposed to be ten times that size. But our problem is that we have become too insular in our outlook. If we lift our sights about the narrow horizons of the UK we only need to look at regions both in Europe and elsewhere to see that regions and provinces vary in size.
A recent brief visit to Canada demonstrated this to me. Provinces like Prince Edward Island (138,000), New Brunswick (755,000), Newfoundland (541,000) and Nova Scotia (939,000) all have the same powers as Quebec (7.3 million) and Ontario (11.5 million). Where service delivery (such as specialist medical services) require economics of scale or a large critical mass then this is easily overcome by co-operation between provinces.
Even criticisms that a Cornish region would be too insular doesn't stand up to analysis. Any such initiative would open up opportunities for Cornwall in a much wider world, because instead of cutting itself off it would enable Cornwall to cut itself into the celebration of diversity of communities, cultures, languages and tradition here in the UK and elsewhere.
The primary down side would be that such an initiative would give succour to a handful of certifiable nationalists - but they are so few in number that there would be no tolerance for this. The prospect of compulsory kilt wearing and constant reference to genealogy would soon become tiresome.
Cornwall has a choice - if it can pick itself up from its torpor in the face of a deeply anaesthetised region and it can stand up for itself or it can simply allow itself to sleep walk into an antiseptic oblivion.
Andrew George MP
30th May 2000
Andrew is possibly the only Member of the United Kingdom Parliament who has openly fought for Cornish Rights in such a consistent way - there have been others but they only seem to surface on certain occasions. A co-author of "Cornwall at the Crossroads?" [1988 ISBN 0 9513918 0 1], Andrew is well versed in all aspects of Cornish life and history and is a unique asset to Cornwall. Another article by Andrew was also published earlier in the Western Morning News on the 7th December 1999 and which carried the introductory editorial comment:
An increasing trend towards merging organisations which run services in Devon and Cornwall should be resisted, argues St Ives MP ANDREW GEORGE. He points toward the success of the tiny country of Iceland as a reason for continuing to have power devolved as locally as possible
"Don't give up control of our own destiny"
For me it was a brief trip to Iceland earlier this year which brought into sharp focus my growing concern about the slide of Cornwall over the precipice into extinction.
Icelandic people are proud and distinctive. Their pride and distinctiveness is the bedrock from which they can concentrate on their priorities and on success.
Since achieving independence from Denmark in 1944, this relatively poor island has become one of the wealthiest nations on earth. It has a higher Gross Domestic Product per person than not only the UK, but France, Germany and Japan as well. It has achieved low inflation and a high standard of living, the highest life expectancy of any nation in the world and enviable economic prospects.
And all of this with a population of 270,000 - little more than half of Cornwall.
Cornwall should have learned lessons from this, if it hadn't been left by successive governments to drift aimlessly in the other direction.
It is not that I am suggesting that Cornwall should declare independence - that would be absurd, unrealistic and patently unobtainable.
However, we in Cornwall might learn that through being clear about our own strengths, knowing what we want to achieve, standing up for ourselves and then going out there with a determination to succeed, we might be taking destiny by the scruff of the neck, instead of sleepwalking into the next millennium with our cap in hand.
I am bound to say that, as a Cornishman, I have always respected the noble art of self-deprecation.
Some say that it is a chronic and untreatable condition brought on by centuries of deference to the Saxons, since King Athlestan drew a line at the River Tamar between England and Cornwall in 936, when he concluded that the Cornish weren't worth the effort of the inevitable annihilation.
But, perhaps it is time to turn self doubt into self belief. Because from honourable distinctiveness, Cornwall now runs the risk of becoming indistinguishable. It also faces the paradox of being both one of the most distinctive regions in the UK, but with its services more merged with others than anywhere else.
Just look at the record of recent years. Not only has the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food office moved from Truro to Exeter, the Camborne police control centre is about to be moved to Plymouth, and Cornwall's careers service, the Magistrates' Courts Committee, and the Learning and Skills Council has merged with those in Devon.
The Government now has plans to merge Cornwall's probation service with Devon's, and there are fears that the fire service will go the same way. And all of this after the Government dismissed Cornwall's claim for a Regional Development Agency of its own, despite Cornwall's very strong and eventually successful campaign to win separate European regional status for the purpose of obtaining Objective One funding. What next? Education, social services, health? This would leave Cornwall as a souped-up parish council.
The contrast with Iceland could hardly be more stark. While a country with a population half that of Cornwall forges on relentlessly to greater and greater success, Cornwall can't even plan its own training for post 16-year-olds, manage its magistrates courts, advise its young people on their future careers, manage its own police service, plan the development of its own economy, organise support for its farming and fishing industries, nor for that matter, run a whole host of other subordinate services.
The conventional arguments against a place like Cornwall thinking, planning and acting for itself, even on these relatively insignificant matters, is that it is "too small"; that it hasn't got "the clout" in the corridors of power; and that it cannot achieve the "economies of scale".
But, as time goes on, these justifications ring more hollow. It is a little like the modern day equivalent of the "Emperor's clothes". They are justifications which are repeated mantra fashion as the unquestioned and accepted wisdom of the day.
These mergers are bad news for Cornwall. Not only does the merging of services result in the removal of the higher paid jobs to the east, contributes to the loss of control over services, masks accountability, and results in more remote management but, above all, it actually cuts off the better option of Cornwall standing up for itself; with the more effective "clout" of its distinctiveness - a distinctiveness based as much on its size as upon the many other unique factors of Cornwall.
Of course, I am not saying that Cornwall should not co-operate with other areas on a project by project basis. The occasional liaison with other areas (whether Devon or elsewhere) can bring renewed vitality. But, an enforced marriage can kill off any lust to succeed and usually ends in tears.
It is not that I believe that we should join the tiny handful of certifiable nationalists who want Cornwall to be "cut-off" from the rest of the world. Quite the opposite. It is time for Cornwall to cut itself into the action happening around Europe and elsewhere. Cornwall has a great deal to contribute to the celebration of diversity both within Britain and a wider world.
Cornwall does not need to passively accept the future lovingly mapped out for it. Cornwall has the choice of being determined to build on the success of its Objective One campaign or to allow Government "merger mania" to sleepwalk it into extinction.
It's time for Cornwall to rediscover its distinctiveness and self-belief creating a strong economy based on Cornwall's unique strength through distinctive branding, becoming the "Green Peninsula" of the UK, developing its unique potential in higher education, maritime development and new technologies. We can and should learn from others.
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