'Devonwall' parliamentary constituency proposal scrapped!

A glimpse of sunshine during these very bleak times!

A few years ago, scores of Cornish people took to the border on two occasions, at the Saltash Tamar Crossing and then at Polson Bridge, where a huge crowd joined by many supporters from as far afield as Brittany actually blocked the border road at one stage with the local police looking the other way, two days of hearings at Cornwall Council in the presence of the unelected Boundary Commission where dozens of people spoke with passion, many in the Cornish language, which left the civil servants bowled over at the strength and passion of anger which exceeded that demonstrated anywhere else in Britain, and then thousands of letters, emails and phone calls to politicians at all levels, to members of the House of Lords, other countries, the United Nations and others has resulted in the proposal of a cross border constituency, unworkable and preposterous as the idea ever was, being dumped!

Such a constituency would have thrown to one side Cornwall's 1,000 year old border with England established by King Athelstan in 936 AD set between the English and Cornish at the high water mark of the eastern bank of the River Tamar.

Westminster Goverment Constitution minister Chloe Smith said the plans to reduce seats to 600 had been dropped in a "change of policy".

She continued, "Since that policy was established in the coalition agreement, the United Kingdom has now left the European Union. The UK Parliament will have a greater workload now we are taking back control and regaining our political and economic independence.It is therefore sensible for the number of parliamentary constituencies to remain at 650."

Kernow Matters To Us (KMTU) thanks one and all for taking part in the campaign to stop this illegal act, to the Councillors who stood firm against the proposal, we thank those who fundraised within KMTU to provide buses to convey protestors to the border with England, to those who fundraised to provide refreshments and to everyone from every walk of Cornish life and beyond who stood firm and said a big 'NO'!

No matter which way the Westminster Government cares to spin this news, it was the Cornish determination which ultimately won through.

Kernow bys vyken!