Are you lost? Go to Main Index and Home PageIt is abundantly clear that given the official attitudes to the Cornish people over many years that there will be an almost insurmountable wall to climb over in getting the State and its puppets to have the honesty and integrity to recognise the existence of the Cornish nation. Bit like giving them a gun and encouraging them to shoot themselves in the foot. An official acknowledgement of a Cornish existence would mean a lot of hard and expensive work in the rewriting of 'British' history and rethinking where the Cornish Nation figures within their vision of an amorphous Westcountry Region. A region which so many have insidiously strived to achieve over the past forty years - particularly certain 'key figures' within the Cornish Administration - and in order to give the vision some semblance of credibility have insidiously hijacked aspects of the Cornish differences to bolster the image of an imposed region which is devoid of humanity, can have no meaningful title and is being achieved by the insidious ploy of dominion, mnemonics and media brainwashing.
With their power and ability to ignore or dismiss Cornish aspirations, these anonymous people do not even have the courage to confront the Cornish issue head on - and why should they? - relying instead on some innate, and inane, prescriptive arrogance and the knowledge that the Cornish have been deliberately kept ignorant of their history and brainwashed by an English media and, consequently, apathy rules! What these myopic people fail to realise is that the inexorable decolonisation of Cornish history will eventually show them up for what they really are and this great wall will topple over onto them. It is my opinion that any actions that the Cornish take to defend their identity and integrity should now be made a matter of written record and including the names of all who are involved in denying us our rights because there will come a time when ignorance will not - as in law - be considered as a defence against redress and the ultimate political accommodation that the Cornish can, and should, expect from a democratic, so-called, multinational State.
Our starting point in considering the reality of the Cornish Nation is the simple definition of nation, given as "a self-identifying people based on the unifying factors of history, culture, language and territory." Reinforcing aspects of this self-identity would be the institutions that, of necessity, would be generated to cultivate and protect whatever aspirations flowed from such factors of identity. Now let us consider the fact that a Cornish identity has been compelled to exist within an aggressive and hostile environment, contrived by forces which have their foundations rooted firmly within the concept of the Island of England, and it becomes obvious that an expression of 'Cornishness' must be an exceptional act of courage. The very fact that the Cornish have been politically announcing their existence over the past hundred years, and with increasing vigour in the past, say, twenty years is - like the salmon's arduous journey up-river to spawn - a measure of the enduring force and undying power of an innate identity which transcends the evils of Imperial political dominion.
Our fight is for our right to a Cornish future! It is not simply, as might be the case for the English county of Yorkshire, an expression of county patriotism. The Cornish fight is one that sees its identity on a par with the rest of the Celtic nations and based on a distinctly non-English historical perspective. The earliest tangible symbol of a Cornish identity that a child will come face to face with - yet be unaware of it! - will be, surely, all those fundamental manifestations of a national identity that it is ever possible to have. I refer, of course, to the many facets of our Cornish language which are ingrained in us from the first time we hear the name of a place or a person. Consider how much more potent this aspect of Cornish symbolism could be, and would be, if Cornish(?) schools provided us with that most basic of lessons in Cornish geography and Cornish history. It is a part of our psyche and we express this knowledge in ways that our non-Cornish neighbours find, because of their own upbringing, unnatural. This is the reason why Cornish surnames and Cornish placenames are so distorted and misrepresented when exposed to non-Cornish influences. The power of dominion and ignorance is having a corrosive effect upon this aspect of our cultural identity.
The inner knowledge that the Cornish people posses with regard to the fact that they are neither English nor 'of England', is something that has been passed down from generation to generation. The confounding of this perception, imposed by the universally promoted concept of the Island of England, is only a stage of confusion brought about by an immaculate deception. In much the same way as we are, from the earliest stages of awareness led into, what I shall call, 'the Santa Zone'. This is a zone of wilful deception with the objective of hiding the truth from us - a process, not dissimilar to the Cornish Paradox. As with any paradox we can all emerge from this state of de facto lies to what is the truth, de jure, but, not before going through an inevitable phase of uncertainty and chosen belief as we are inexorably confronted by more enlightened and objective knowledge.
When considering such a phrase as 'the Cornish Nation' we must be conscious that there are varying manipulative uses of the term 'nation' and, within that, 'nationalism' which must be purged in order to be objective about what is both being said and what is meant by these terms. What is meant, for example, by the name of the organisation known to the world as 'the United Nations' when, in fact, its vetoing members are, in the main, the old Imperial States and not Nations at all? How can such an organisation seriously be expected to represent the desires and aspirations of true cultural nations when it is an intrinsic part of the make-up of such an organisation to protect its own imperial aspirations as we have seen in Chechnya? Where does the misrepresentative in-phrase "the British Nation" with its imperialistic undertones fit into the political propaganda pick list? What, indeed, have the fascist and imperialistic aspirations of Adolf Hitler to do with Cornish nationalism to whom there is the occasional cynical comparison? Where does nationalism finish and imperialism take over? How does, for example, Cornish nationalism relate to nationalism, imperialism, fascism or racism as illustrated by the definitions which follow? | |||||
Fascism: | A system of one-party government, developed by the Fascisti in Italy, which exercised a centralised autocratic control over the activities of all individuals, especially through the economic agency of state corporations. | ||||
Imperialism: | A policy that aims at creating, maintaining, or extending an empire or superstate, comprising many nations and areas, all controlled by a central government | ||||
Nationalism: | A world order founded on the right of each nation to determine its policies unhindered by others. | ||||
Nazism: | The doctrines or practices of the Nazi party: founded in 1919 on fascist principles where it followed the principles of extreme nationalism, racism, totalitarian direction of all cultural, political, and economic activity, and miltarisation, while urging a destiny of world leadership for Germany. | ||||
Racism: | An excessive and irrational belief in or advocacy of the superiority of a given group, people, or nation on racial grounds alone | ||||
Nationalism stands alone in being non-aggressive towards others except where it is being used as an alias to disguise imperialistic aspirations. Imperialism has been defined by others as "the unspeakable evil" to which racism is inextricably linked. It was, I suspect, a phase of mankind's development to where we are at the moment and a horrific learning curve to a better future brought about by a formula called sincere democratic principles and a genuine respect for others.
| |||||
I would say to those who would deny us our right to be seen to be Cornish, that they cannot say that we do not exist as long as they deny us 'official' means to affirm that we do.
If the Cornish are not able to officially record their existence, because this mechanism has been denied to us, then it is bizarre for some external agency to say that we do not exist. The incontrovertible fact is that the Cornish people consider themselves to exist and that this existence is already a matter of recorded history. The Cornish people have a number of ways with which to record their existence and these will be covered in a separate page which will develop scenarios for pro-Cornish Action. What is necessary to record here is, that given an official opportunity then the indisputable truth can be established. An Exeter University survey of twelve Cornish parishes, completed in the 1989, was unique in that it established a very necessary ground-breaking precedent in the fight for Cornish Rights. The enlightened approach within that survey to identify both Cornish and English participants, must go some way to focus future attention on the fundamental right of the Cornish to be seen to be Cornish, and to call into question official policies which seek to make the Cornish people statistically invisible.
Soon after reading the Exeter Report, there was an opportunity to follow that same model for a similar survey of Lanner Parish (1990) as part of my son's fifth year geography project. There was no hesitation by the participants to answer the question "Are you Cornish, English etc....?" and the resultant responses gave 60% Cornish and 40% English. Both surveys will be discussed in more detail within the book 'Cornish Paradox' - when time permits the continuation of that project. The purpose of drawing attention to this aspect of both the 'Twelve Cornish Parishes' survey by Exeter University and the smaller scale survey of Lanner parish is that it shows the urgent need to provide the Cornish people with a positive outlet for recording their identity. There was only one participant, a recent English immigrant, who obviously objected to the word 'Cornish' by obliterating the word and annotating the action with the word "RUBBISH". Needless to say the participant selected 'English' and qualified this with the words "BRITISH PASSPORT IDENTITY". need I say more? Have another look at Covert Coercion [within the Cornish Genocide suite of pages from the 'Internal Links' index panel]! In an age which is critically dependent upon information gathering and information technology, why should the Cornish be left statistically invisible?
The following extract was taken from the Carn Brea Column of the Cornish newspaper, the Camborne-Redruth Packet (30th May 1984) and published under a Banner headline:
A matter of nationality... I THINK Prince Charles must have been educating his father in the beliefs of the folk who live in his Duchy...
The Duke of Edinburgh presented the Rev. Michael Bourdeaux, son of retired Praze baker Richard Bourdeaux and his wife Lillian. with the 1984 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion at Buckingham Palace last week.
As Michael and his wife Lorna stood chatting to him, the donor of the award told the Duke this was the first time it had been presented to an Englishman.
"He's not an Englishman, he's a Cornishman" said the Duke.
The existence of the Cornish people is also something which can be deduced from the writings of others external to the Duchy. Some of which have been referred to within 'Cornish Milestones'.
A.H. Evans, "English Historians and Welsh History"(1975) reveals the extent to which history must be de-colonised in order to be truly objective. He makes the observation, with regard to written history, that:
"The Celtic peoples are not nearly as fortunate in this respect as, for example, the Greeks or the Hans, nevertheless, the factual material which has come down the dyffryns of time about the Gauls, the Irish, the Scots, the Manx, Bretons, Cornish and Welsh is sufficient for the purpose of writing a coherent history, one which will withstand the closest of examinations by 'outside interests'... ...who are not in danger of being scorched by the ever increasing struggles of the Celtic peoples to free themselves from foreign domination. "
A more recent publication by Hugh Kearney, "The British Isles" (1989) opens the Introduction with:
"This is not a piece of national history, though it owes a great deal to work by nationally minded historians. It is an attempt to examine within short compass, the interaction of the various major cultures of the British Isles from the Roman Period onwards. The emphasis throughout is on the British Isles, in the belief that it is only by adopting a 'Britannic' approach that historians can make sense of the particular segment in which they may be primarily interested, whether it be 'England', 'Ireland', 'Scotland', 'Wales', Cornwall or the Isle of Man. "
The book does not look at, or develop the CORNISH DIMENSION within 'Britannic' history but does, at least, acknowledge the Duchy's existence and occasionally makes passing references to it later in the book. When summing up the decline and fall of the Norman-French Empire, he feels moved to make the following observation:
"During the late fifteenth century, Scotland, Ireland and Wales were left largely to their own devices and even smaller communities such as the Isle of Man and Cornwall, which deserve more attention than has been given here, enjoyed a good deal of independence. "
The Cornish had, of course, risen in Revolt twice at the end of the fifteenth century in opposition to paying taxes for an English war against the Scots and followed very quickly by their ill-fated support for Perkin Warbeck. Again, in the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, the Cornish rose in opposition to the imposition of the English language in prayer. The Tudor period may have seen Cornwall brought under the tighter controls of a centralised London Government but Cornwall was still a Celtic-speaking country and her constitutional position was acknowledged and accommodated.
The Integrity of Cornwall and the Cornish people has endured despite many encroachments which threaten a Cornish Legitimacy. As Evans says, a coherent history could be written. The fact that such a definitive history has yet to be written is not the failure of the Cornish people in the writing of it so much as the failure of Central Government to acknowledge the constitutional existence of the Duchy of Cornwall - which at the beginning of the 19th century had more members in the House of Commons than Scotland had - and to direct funding for the same purposes as enjoyed by Wales and Scotland.
There is a legitimate case for the setting up of a 'Cornish History Committee'. Adequately funded by the State and with free access to documents within the Duchy of Cornwall Archives.
An interesting aspect of the Cornish Nation is the way that the Duchy was perceived at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century. The Cornish Milestones item for 1780 gave the following comment:
Edmund Burke sought to curtail further the power of the Crown by removing the various principalities which existed. "... the five several distinct principalities besides the supreme... If you travel beyond Mount Edgcumbe, you find him [the king] in his incognito, and he is duke of Cornwall... Thus every one of these principalities has the apparatus of a kingdom... Cornwall is the best of them...".
Whilst this is a reference to the institution of the Duchy, it must be conceded that such a special status must have had a lasting influence upon the people's perception of themselves and that this is a story which is just waiting to be told. It cannot be denied that this special status must also have had an influence upon external perceptions of both the territory and the people within it. It was the time of monoglot Cornish speaker, Dolly Pentreath, and the last remnants of native Cornish speakers over the next century, and there was a considerable amount of antiquarian interest in all aspects of Cornish life - particularly the language. The Cornish, without doubt, considered themselves to be nothing but Cornish but we have yet to learn of the political outlook of the Cornish people. There was, however, enough of an aura emanating from Cornwall, at that time, to encourage Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) to equate, what he considered to be the flawed concept of American Independence, with the concept of Cornish Independence. Dr. Johnson's opening passage is most interesting:
"As political diseases are naturally contagious, let it be supposed for a moment that Cornwall, seized with the Philadelphian frenzy may resolve to separate itself and judge of its own rights in its own parliament... ...Know then that you are no longer to consider Cornwall as an English county... We are the acknowledged descendants of the earliest inhabitants of Britain... Of this descent our language is sufficient proof... In claiming independence we claim but little. We might require you to depart from a land which you posses by usurpation, and to restore all that you have taken from us..."
Amen, to that! The full text of his paper, suitably annotated, is contained within "The Little Land of Cornwall" (1986) by Dr A L Rowse who concludes the chapter with:
"...the English Doctor, without meaning to do so, wrote a very reasonable Declaration of Independence for the Cornish, who share the odd Celtic sense of humour about the English."
The historical existence of the Cornish people is acknowledged within the publication "The Making of Pre-Industrial Britain" (first published in 1969) and written by T.K.Derry & M.G.Blakeway. The opening text of the publication, on page 1, provides the following quote and opening statement:
" 'The whole country of Britain is divided into four parts, whereof the one is inhabited by Englishmen, the other of Scots, the third of Welshmen, the fourth of Cornish people ... which all differ among themselves either in tongue, either in manners, or else in laws and ordinances.'
So wrote the naturalized Italian cleric, Polydore Vergil, in a history of England which he composed at the request of the first Tudor king, Henry VII. In the present volume we shall try to trace the process by which these peoples were welded together to form the Britain of the mid-eighteenth century, whose name the youthful George III was to glory in."
As if to prove, like many before them, the existence of the Cornish Paradox, the authors only give occasional references to Cornwall and the Cornish people. Along with many writers it seems as if duty has been done by one seductive comment and then a void. There is one point of interest, however, where it is stated - regarding the mid-eighteenth century:
"Wesley was concerned with moral rather than economic progress. Among the Cornish, for example, his ministry is held to have been responsible for the final disappearance of the hideous practice of inducing shipwrecks, to which Defoe may be taken to allude when he calls them 'a fierce and ravenous people'."
There is much that could be said within this page and, given time, this will be done. For those, however, whose appetite needs to be fed more rapidly, May I please encourage the reading of "The Making of Modern Cornwall" by Dr. Philip Payton [ISBN 1 85022 064 6] which is subtitled "Historical Experience and the Persistence of Difference. This is a volume which provides an essential academic background to any knowledge of Cornwall and ignorance of which prevents any objective discussion of the Cornish Paradox.
It is only by committed research and a sincere Cornish objectivity by writers such as Payton, Rowse, Deacon, Angarrack et al., that the truth of the Cornish people's existence both here at home and abroad will be written and which will give substance to the fleeting glances of the Cornish by writers in the past, such as the above quote from Defoe 'a fierce and ravenous people'. or the Robert Louis Stevenson reference from "Across the Plains" (1879):-
"There were no emigrants direct from Europe - save one German family and a knot of Cornish miners who kept grimly to themselves, one reading the New Testament all day long through steel spectacles, the rest discussing privately the secrets of their old-world, mysterious race. Lady Hester Stanhope believed she could make something great of the Cornish; for my part, I can make nothing of them at all. A division of races, older and more original than Babel, keeps this close, esoteric family apart from neighbouring Englishmen. Not even a Red Indian seems more foreign in my eyes. This is one of the lessons of travel - that some of the strangest races dwell next door to you at home."
Whilst the reference is dismissive, it is a valuable observation. It is just one of many such references which will hopefully be made available for public scrutiny to show how perceptions have been manipulated by the English Establishment to deny us our Cornish existence. I shall be only too delighted to make space available within this site to to include all, and any, such references which may be sent to me.
A distinctive aspect of the Cornish political culture is the unfolding pattern of a unique form of Cornish symbolism designed to challenge perceptions of Cornwall and a direct reaction against the anti-Cornish symbolism imposed by the political and commercial establishments. A type of symbolism, guaranteed to express the persistence of Cornish difference and our non-English heritage. Possibly the most powerful of these symbols of the Cornish identity was in adopting a proposal of the Celtic League, in the 1950s, that all the Celtic Nations should have their own National Tartan. This struck a chord within the Duchy insofar as there was already a tradition within the Cornish Gorsedd of wearing a black kilt. The Cornish National Tartan was designed using a variety of colours associated with tangible attributes of our distinct Cornish Heritage.
The white and black of St Piran's banner, our National Flag, which, in its own way, alone symbolically represents the Cornish experience of repression and - through truth! - our growing enlightenment; The black and gold which represents the royal colours of the Cornish Duchy and our ancient kings; The red [with black] which is representative of the legs and beak of the Cornish Chough, our National bird, and which again is symbolically representative of 'Arthur' - The once and future king! - and our hope for a champion of Cornish aspirations; The blue depicts the sea, and rivers, which surround us. This appropriately reminds us that both our territory and people are almost an island. The 'Cornish Milestone' for 1840 seems to be most apposite and worthy of much deeper analysis!
This aspect of Cornish symbolism has magnificently passed the public credibility test despite the narrow negativity of those who reject this concept but who, at the same time, can offer no suitable alternative symbol for such a mass expression of identity. The fact that the Cornish National Tartan was embraced by the widest cross-section of people stands as a testimonial - as does 'the Lanner Survey' - for their desire to be seen to be Cornish. Other Cornish tartans may have followed but the Cornish National Tartan was a symbol that touched everyone and is recognisable world-wide.
.
.
This page is progressively being added to.....
| Are you lost? Go to Main Index and Home Page |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |