The battle for Cornwall - assaults continue on us, our land, our language

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

Kernow

8 Mys Kevardhu 2016

A why agas oll wheg

Welcome to new members

'The land of our birth is the love of our lives'

We take this opportunity to welcome to Kernow Matters To Us (KMTU) the many new members who have joined us.  

Since the decision was made just over a year ago to form a pro Cornwall, pro Cornish outspoken campaigning organisation, we have seen our full membership steadily grow. We thank you all for joining us and for believing as we all do that Kernow matters. So we have people now not only in Cornwall but from further afield and even overseas, people who may be Cornish, or who are the people of Cornwall or who share with us, our love of the Country. Never before has an outspoken defence of Cornwall and the Cornish been more necessary. Never before have people from such a variety of backgrounds come together. More on the constant attacks on Cornwall later.

Hopefully, most full members have access to Facebook and if so, we try to encourage one and all to join our private site where much discussion and planning occurs. We also maintain outward facing social media sites on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and the progress with those has been astounding. Our weekly reach now well exceeds 100,000 people who read of Cornwall, our history, our language, our culture, our politics and that presence is growing.

Devonwall

The silly proposals put forward by the unelected quango, the Boundary Commission in respect of a cross border Westminster parliamentary constituency have been resisted in every possible and lawful way. 

There has been engagement with MPs, Lords, MEPs, Councils and Councillors and with the Boundary Commission direct. Hundreds of letters have been written and emails sent. We financed a bus to take protestors to Polson Bridge so they could participate in the blocking off of our border with England and we supplied hundreds of bottles of spring water to the protestors. Our members attended and spoke at the hearings at Cornwall Council and we wrote to all 213 of Cornwall’s Town and Parish Councils telling them of this threat to our territorial integrity. 

Although not all our members are politically affiliated, for we will stand with anyone who stands for Cornwall, we pay tribute to Cornwall Councillor Dick Cole and his team who have worked solidly at Cornwall Council in the anti Devonwall campaign and also to our Grand Bard, Dr Merv Davey and many of the Bards, including many of our members who are Barded, for also taking up the challenge. 

The matter has been subject of debate in their Westminster parliament and we all witnessed the shenanigans of Sherryl Murray MP who let herself and her homeland down badly. This won’t be forgotten and we witnessed a demonstration outside her constituency office organised by people who are fed up with her. It must be understood that we believe Cornwall must come before their parliament in distant London, before political parties and before political ambition. Such is our pledge and that of our growing membership. We await the next phase of their government campaign to gerrymander our 1,100 year old border.

The constant assaults on Cornwall and the Cornish language

Make no mistake, there is an ongoing war aimed at Cornwall and the Cornish people. After their government declined to return our tax money to us to support the Cornish language, we witnessed Devonwall. 

Then we heard the ill thought out and ignorant expressions of a government minister called Sajid Javid MP who made it clear that there would be no tolerance of Cornish difference or diversity. 

As is to be expected, it was his government department, the Department for Communities and Local Government, then under the control of another of their transient politicians, James Wharton MP, who suspended Cornish language funding. 

"Some in Cornwall see their 'county' (sic) as distinct from the rest of their 'region' (sic), a special case that should be handled separately from everywhere east of the Tamar. If we're going to make a success of the 'South West' (sic), that whole attitude has to change." (Sajid Javid, Tory Minister, Oct. 2016)

Please listen to what Sajid Javid MP says: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VuDH6xGXSk

You can read local opinion on ‘South Westernisation’ here: 

https://cornishstuff.com/2016/12/06/the-south-west-growth-charter/

This has now been followed by a massive assault on our Cornish language arising from a report from another member of their English establishment, Dame Louise Casey (she has the order of the bath and is a dame of an empire which isn't there any more! And they accuse us of being dreamers!)

Some of their newspapers (sic) were delighted to pick up on this persons’s ill-judged and inaccurate bile because as we know, they enjoy any reason to put down Cornwall and the Cornish.

Here is what the ‘Sun’ said: 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2335329/government-officials-spent-more-on-cornish-language-lessons-than-english/

Here is what the ‘Express’ said: 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/740477/government-cornish-language-lessons-english-integration

Note how it is suggested that we, the Cornish are somehow responsible for the rise of extremism and just how this nonsense is picked up by those who read these Anglo centric red top rags.

You can read about what Sajid Javid MP said in response to this silly person here: 

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2016-12-06b.130.6&s=Cornish#g134.0

We have long realised that people like to hate the Cornish. 

These was recently brought to the fore by a young lady shocked at what she has heard and read:  

http://juliet92x.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/are-cornish-people-victims-of.html

and here: 

https://cornovia.wordpress.com/2016/11/02/tory-hatred-of-the-cornish-and-

cornwall-is-palpable-and-it-knows-no-bounds-or-borders/?wref=tp

So, to flag what is happening KMTU has decided to tell the world. 

With the support of two language groups and societies, we are writing to the embassy of almost every country in the world telling them of the treatment we receive at the hands of Westminster and the Anglo centric establishment.  These aren’t emails we are sending, these are personalised letters. They are written respecting diplomatic protocol. It’s a big task. We think it’s worth it. We have already received back a very supportive response from the United States of America. It will be interesting to see what the many other countries say including the Vatican, Russia and China.

We have also entered a Freedom of Information request to the DCLG asking to see all documents and records leading up to the decision to stop returning out tax money in support of our language. As expected, they refused to disclose the material on the first request and so we have gone to the first appeal stage. We are prepared to go further.

Once again, following this Casey report, letters have started to be sent in complaint and we encourage that. We shall certainly be entering a complaint to the newspapers concerned and to IPSO

We have also been reporting all hateful comments made about the Cornish to the police. This can be done via the 'True Vision' website and we have copied the Corporate Equality and Diversity Advisor at Cornwall Council in on our complaints:

http://www.report-it.org.uk/report_a_hate_crime

Here are copies of some letters which have been sent already by some folks:

“I read today that The Casey Review said: (sic) “The department responsible for integration policy spending more promoting the Cornish language than the English language”.

If Dame Louise Casey believes this then she has a) been misinformed and is very gullible or is b) indulging in cynical politics by picking on an endangered language that the government is obliged to protect (and doesn't)

Please remember

1) Cornish is the only endangered British language without a devolved administration looking after it and Westminster chose the DCLG. In other words, we are only with the department responsible for integration policy by Westminster cluelessness and should always have had a separate budget anyway

2) Money that used to be spent on Cornish was not for 'integration' it was to help the UK government meet a charter commitment to protect an endangered language

3) Money spent on Cornish in the last year equated to.56 pence per person for a whole year and I am pretty sure that is not more than has been spent in schools on English, on outreach programs for NEETS, on looked after children's extra curricula learning etc etc

4) The one off 56 pence also went towards translation services, supporting government departments and quangos, community projects, providing proper academic support, adult teaching, pre-school teaching, professional development for teachers, university courses, report writing for the government and so on. In other words, it covered all the stuff most officials couldn't and was supported by a massive community/volunteer effort The last Government minister who took a detailed look went on record as saying words to the effect that he wished ' all similar departments could provide such good value for money'

5) The Casey report seems to ignore the value added to the Cornish identity as brand, you should not. See http://www.hie.co.uk/about-hie/news-and-media/archive/research-reveals-value-of-gaelic-to-businesses-and-communities-in-scotland.html#sthash.syygzirT.dGZHTC45.dpbs

And: 

“1. Accuracy : 

conflating the meagre funding to promote the Cornish Language (that amounted to 10p per year per Cornish resident) to the amount that UK government spends on teaching English to people with literacy challenges ("struggling Brits") is wholly misleading.
The figures of how much funding Cornish received are wrong and there is no mention that Cornish language funding has now been totally cut to £0.
Further, there has been plenty of literacy skills training funded directly or indirectly by government through Adult learning centres and the like.

2. Discrimation 

The Sun should be reminded that the Cornish are now a "national minority" and have a degree of protection under the FCPNM and the language of this protected minority, Kernewek / Cornish is further protected under under Part II of the Council of Europe's Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The Cornish and their language now enjoy the same respect and protection as the Welsh, Scottish, Gaelic and other minority status holders. The Sun has been discriminatory in this article by not affording Cornish the same respect as other protected languages of the UK. As a national newspaper The Sun should be aware of this change (since 2014) and have implemented a policy to it's journalists and editors to inform them of the change.

The article is discriminatory as for example would they dare to say "How much did the UK 'blow' on Welsh in the same period"?

"But over the same period, it blew £280,000 on lessons in Cornish, in a bid to protect the niche West Country language"

Further to call Cornish 'a niche language' is wholly misleading and again derogatory. Many public bodies and institutions use Cornish frequently and as a vital part of their branding. The amount of fluent speakers does not equate to the entire use of a language, and certainly not in the case of Cornish. The use of Cornish in Cornwall is widespread and celebrated. It is certainly not a niche.

Including a salicious picture from the BBC series Poldark is entirely irrelevant to the article. Cornwall = Poldark? Is Aiden Turner a Cornish speaker? Really? Is that all we are? It is demeaning and discrimatory to reduce a people and its 1500 year old language to such a level of disregard.

"DCLG officials admitted the ministry has spent £780,000 on the Cornish language over the past six years" . Admitted?? Is it a crime for a UK Government to uphold its obligations under international treaty by spending a tiny amount of money to promote and protect an indigenous British language?

Finally the headline uses "The Corn Identity" in a derogatory manner. The Cornish identity is protected under international charter and the Cornish language can be an extremely important part of someone's Cornish identity.

The article as a whole is derogatory and discriminatory towards the Cornish people and the Cornish language. The rest of the copy makes valid points about failing literacy levels but to use the Cornish language in such a demeaning manner to give this article an 'angle' has caused me great offence, as I'm sure it has done to many Cornish people, not just the ones who are lucky enough to be able to speak Kernewek fluently. The headline is misleading as the part about Cornish is a very minor part of the article's main points.”

Here are some email addresses:

Westminster MPs in Cornwall:

steve.double.mp@parliament.uk

george.eustice.mp@parliament.uk

scott.mann.mp@parliament.uk

sheryll.murray.mp@parliament.uk

sarah.newton.mp@parliament.uk

derek.thomas.mp@parliament.uk

Westminster MPs out of Cornwall:

https://www.writetothem.com/

Sajid Javid MP

sajid.javid.mp@parliament.uk

'Dame' Louise Casey

http://forms.communities.gov.uk/

The Sun ‘newspaper’ (sic)

feedback@the-sun.co.uk

The Express ‘newspaper’ (sic)

http://www.express.co.uk/contactform/complaints

Independent Press Standards Organisation

https://www.ipso.co.uk/make-a-complaint/complaints-form/

Please write to these people in protest at what we are all clearly witnessing.

Planning free for all

We commend those of our members who are working closely with Cornwall 4 Change and with others to resist the housebuilding free for all going on in Cornwall and the wanton destruction of our environment. Some of our members gave evidence before the Planning Inspectorate quango in Newquay earlier this year and joined the small demonstration outside. 

Many of our members in the public and emergency services are reporting how their services are creaking under the pressure now. How will they cope when we have over 100,000 more people dumped on us?

It's short termism in the extreme but politicians are short term, here today, gone tomorrow leaving us to pick up the mess they have created.

And finally....

The Cornish themed live BBC Radio 3 broadcast from Goonhilly. Great performances from our very own 'Changing Room' in Cornish and English AND the young choristers from Truro cathedral. Both were great representatives of our Country so well done and Keslowena to them both!

Listen in here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084dclj

and thanks to Clive and team, a bit of Cornish for your seasonal cards: 

Seasons greetings (to you)……Gorhemmynadow an Seson (re ‘gas bo)

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you

……………….Nadelek Lowen ha Bledhen Noweth da re ‘gas bo
With Christmas greetings….. Gans gorhemmynadow Nadelek

(with) Every good wish for the Season

………………… (gans) pup bolunjeth da rag an Seson

A good read?

Cornwall's First Golden Age by Dr Bernard

Deacon

http://www.francisboutle.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=130

Dan Daddow's Cornish Comicalities by Dr Alan

Kent

http://www.halsgrove.com/proddetail.php?prod=9781906551438

Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall and Scilly, 4000BC -1000AD by Craig Weatherhill

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10294694-cornovia

Kernow kensa ha dhe hes! Kernow bys vyken!

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

Elected Members of the KMTU Steering Group

Our bio: Our Steering Group members are a mirror of our wider membership. Of all ages, skin colours, ethnic backgrounds, countries of residence, occupations, vocations and professions, religious beliefs, political persuasions, sexual orientations and gender identification, we are drawn together by a common cause. We believe that Cornwall matters.