The call for increased rights for Cornish people continues

Kernow

6 mis Metheven 2018

The call for increased rights for Cornish people continues.

There has been much inaccurate reportage instigated by the BBC following a recent You Gov survey. Small numbers of people were asked misleading questions and of this organisation’s many hundreds of members, many subscribe to YouGov but not one has been involved in this survey. The results of this survey has been interpreted incorrectly by a number of mainstream media outlets and English extremists in an attempt to declare Cornish identity subsumed by England.

Informal studies indicate that under 200 people in Cornwall were surveyed.

Cornish people were recognised as a non English National Minority by the Westminster Government and the Council of Europe in 2014. (Please note, the Council of Europe, initiated in part by Winston Churchill in 1943 and founded in 1949, is not the European Union)

Since then, increased devolution has occurred from Westminster to Cornwall.

Cornwall Council submitted information to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to support the case for a Cornish tick-box within the national identity section of the 2021 Census in November 2017.

The lack of a Cornish tick-box means that currently Cornish identity is not properly recognised within central government processes, and government departments have not included Cornish within policy considerations, monitoring or data collection activities. This has led toa lack of data/information, which both inhibits a proper understandingof the risks of relative deprivation amongst the Cornish, as well as potentially negatively impacting upon funding decisions for the region.

Cornish ethnicity was introduced as a tick-box within the Census and Pupil Level Annual Schools Census (PLASC) across Cornwall in 2006.

Parents and guardians determine the ethnic background for their children at primary schools with pupils at secondary schools deciding their own ethnicity.

Annual data shows that those identifying themselves as Cornish has increased since the tick -box option was introduced from 23.7% in 2006 to 51.1% in 2017.

14% of the population living in Cornwall self-identified as Cornish in the 2011 census– a significant number considering no tick-box option was available, with people having to write in ‘Cornish’ under the ‘Other’ option.

Drawing on the Welsh example, in 2001 14.4% of residents in Wales wrote in their national identity as Welsh, yet this rose to 66% following

the inclusion of the Welsh tick-box in 2011.

The Cornish are afforded the same status under the Framework Convention as the UK’s other Celtic persons - the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish.

However, the Cornish are the only group not to be afforded a tick-box within this Celtic cluster.

The inclusion of a tick-box should not merely be a matter of size or national application, but should also reflect the parity of status accorded under the FCNM.

There is a risk that under the current arrangements a significant proportion of our population are deterred from recording themselves accurately due to theuse of the write in option.

The write-in option may thus be a barrier to those wanting to identify as Cornish by adding to relatively greater complexity to self-identification than that experienced by the UK’s other Celtic persons.

This will also impair the accuracy of the data and our ability to draw robust conclusions from the data presented in order to monitor compliance with the FCNM.

The Council of Europe, Advisory Committee on the FCNM makes a specific recommendation in regards to the Census, namely that the authorities:

“take the necessary measures to include the possibility to self-identify as Cornish, through a ‘tick-box’ in the next census, and to facilitate the expression of self-identification of any other group because data collection is relevant to the application of minority rights.”

Although the Cornish were not afforded a tick - box in 2011, through the write-in option the Cornish returned over 73,000 usual residents.

Gypsy or Irish Traveller accounted for 58,000 usual residents making it the smallest ethnic category, with a tick box, in 2011.

Whilst we all fully support the continued inclusion of a Gypsy or Irish Traveller tick-box it would seem perverse not to grant the Cornish the same consideration.

In addition to Cornwall Council and great numbers of the Cornish people, all Cornwall’s six MPs are now in favour of this and Cornish MP, Steve Double has been appointed by the Prime Minister as Cornwall’s representative at the Council of Europe.

This announcement was met with widespread approval.

Increasing numbers of Cornish people are becoming frustrated and indeed angry at having to justify themselves to the imperialistic and arrogant BBC which has already come in for criticism for its handling of Cornish affairs, the media and indeed extreme right wing English organisations who seem to feel the need to wipe out the Cornish, echoing the often violent actions in England's aggressive past.

Not for nothing did Jack Straw MP (  the English are "potentially very aggressive, very violent" and will "increasingly articulate their Englishness following devolution." ) and William Hague MP (  "English nationalism is the most dangerous of all forms of nationalism that can arise within the United Kingdom, because England is five-sixths of the population of the UK." ) point out the extreme dangers of English nationalism during 2000. 

Kernow bys vyken!

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

Elected Members of the KMTU Steering Group

Information and statistical Sources:

Cornwall Council

HM Government