Appointment of Cornishman, Steve Double MP to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Following a statement by the Prime Minister, Steve Double, Member of Parliament for St Austell and Newquay, has been appointed to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Our 'grass roots' organisation, comprising many hundreds of Cornish people, people of Cornwall and their friends from all over, congratulates Mr. Double on this appointment and we know that he is on record as saying that he is Cornish first and foremost. We know that Mr. Double stood up in the distant Westminster House of Commons and spoke out against the idiocy and insult that is 'Devonwall', something which so many have put their hearts and souls into fighting all the way.

This is one small step towards something we were promised a long time ago, a Minister for Cornwall. and when the Conservatives were in opposition, they appointed Michael Prisk, another Cornish man, as such in 'shadow' form.

Let us make it clear, we want what is best for the Cornwall we know and love. We want to protect it during these fast moving and sometimes destructive times. We have an honest respect for our unique history and heritage, our language and culture. We recognise that those things are the bedrock of our Cornishness.

Do most of us seek independence from the current United Kingdom? No.

What we do seek is as much power at local level as can be extracted from the centralist Westminster government. Are we any less than Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands or even London? No. We have local talent which can step up to the mark and take decisions and to be directly accountable for those decisions right here in Cornwall and not hundreds of miles away.

We all recognise that we were stabbed in the back over Cornish language funding. We all know that dirty dealings occurred in Westminster and we even know who was reponsible. Our Freedom of Information requests lost in a sea of official obfustication and deception have gone on to confirm what we know.

There is much to be done. 

We are entitled to be recognised in the census documentation and to have our own 'tick box'. We are entitled to have our language properly funded, as the indigeneous languages of the other Celtic Nations are by their governments, and for that language to be made even more visible and offered for tuition in our schools. We are entitled to have a 'Cornish BBC'. We are entitled to be protected from the racist sneers and ignorance directed at us all too frequently. We are entitled to have direct control of our own heritage management and for that to be Cornish and not some post imperial and quite frankly foreign imposition. We are entitled to see our environment protected from the best efforts of property developers and the avaricious mass holiday 'industry' to destroy the very thing which draws people here. ( 'You need more in an economy than just tourism, ice cream and deckchairs.' the late David Penhalign MP ) We are entitled to proper public services and to have those services funded in equality with those elewehere. W

So again, we say 'keslowena' (congratulations) Mr. Double. There is much to be done and for as much as we bicker and disagree, we all share a love and commitment for something which is greater than us as individuals. that sense of place that we inherited from our ancestors and predecessors and the complete respect for that.

Kernow bys vyken!

John, Teresa, Craig, Tony, Matt, Mike, Clive, Ronan, Alex & Mark

Elected Members of the KMTU Steering Group

Links:

Cornwall's most reliable, honest and Cornish news source, 'Cornish Stuff' https://cornishstuff.com/2018/05/23/cornish-mp-appointed-to-parliamentary-assembly-of-the-council-of-europe-by-pm/

Government announcement - Cornish inclusion into The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cornish-granted-minority-status-within-the-uk

Government announcement - official recognition of the Cornish language: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20060214063351/http://www.gosw.gov.uk/gosw/culturehome/heritage/cornish/