KMTU News circular - National Trust; National Minority Report; Westminster; and more

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

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National Trust actions at Levant
Following on from National Trust vandalism at Levant which resulted in direct action by unknown individuals, we are pleased to report that five representatives of several groups met with the National Trust officials at Levant with the following results:

PARKING CHARGES (Levant & Botallack): They're not giving way on this. HOWEVER, they admitted that they'll be employing no one to monitor or enforce.

SIGNAGE: They agree that what has been done by them in recent months is ugly and unacceptable. They are willing to work with us to revise and improve this, quite drastically if needs be. If there is any way that the ugly meter can be improved or muted in appearance, they will consider suggestions on that, too.

GATE AT BOTALLACK: They explained the reason for this, which is reasonable in principle, but accept that gating the entrance is not practical, especially as horse riders can't get through that now, which creates an undesirable hazard for them, as it's the only safe way up from the cliff path. They want to block vehicular access to that area, for reasons of both safety (there's an unprotected vertical drop-off on its northern side) and archaeological preservation, and will consider practical alternatives.

CORNISH LANGUAGE POLICY: Ian Marsh, Area NT Warden for West Penwith confirmed that the NT does have one in draft form. He will send this by e-mail for our representative to examine and comment upon.

KMTU does not condone criminal damage committed by any persons.

National Minority Report

Causing much laughter amongst the Conservatives including Eric Pickles MP (he of the swollen ministerial car and biscuit bill expenses claim) who openly mocked the Cornish during the Sunday Politics Programme informing that the whole issue of language funding and minority status was to bribe previous Coalition partners, the Lib Dems, we don't view this as a laughing matter.

This has made many newspapers:

http://www.cornwalllive.com/cornish-minority-report-stop-oppressing-cornwall-and-fund-our-culture-language-and-traditions/story-30213892-detail/story.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/18/stop-oppressing-cornwall-council-europes-warning-britain/

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/10/council-of-europe-criticises-uk-for-cornish-language-funding-cuts

Here is a copy of the Council of Europe report:

https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=09000016806fb9ab

At the foot of this article is a copy of a transcript of the TV interview with Eric Pickles and will ensure the Council of Europe are made aware of this.

A view of Westminster

Recently, one of our younger members wrote a damning opinion piece about the Westminster Government which has been published in the local press.

This caused much debate but to that opinion piece, we add these reports:

http://www.cornwalllive.com/mps-george-eustice-and-scott-mann-questioned-by-police-over-election-expenses/story-30211378-detail/story.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/16/conservatives-fined-70000-mp-reported-police-following-investigation/

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/mar/15/second-tory-reveals-police-investigated-him-over-spending-allegations

Devonwall Petition

The second battle to STOP 'Devonwall' is now underway. We even have the Council of Europe stating it's wrong! We have an enormous battle on our hands but being Cornish, we will stubbornly fight the Westminster Government and the unelected Boundary Commission quango for all we are worth. We've even picked up supporters on the way and Steve Double MP spoke against his party saying 'Devonwall' was against the wishes of the people.

At the suggestion of the Council of Europe, we will also be sending a report about the Boundary Commission and it's unlawful proposals to the Congress on Local and Regional Authorities.

The petition may be found here and we ask that you please sign and share it: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/188271

Royal Cornwall Museum Truro

One of our team attended a meeting with the RCM Truro and briefed them on how the museum can better engage with the public, what people want to see, and how Kernow, its history, people, language and culture can be better represented, depicted and explained.

Letting other Countries know about the mistreatment of the Cornish

We continue to write to the Countries of the world about the situation here in Cornwall at the hands of Westminster. We have already received very positive results from the United States Embassy and perhaps unusually from the Armenian Embassy who inform us that they will be sending our report to one of their Government Departments for consideration. The Armenians are an ancient people and have suffered greatly in the past, of course. 

Kernow bys Vyken!

Issued on behalf of Kernow Matters To Us.

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

Elected Members of the KMTU Steering Group

Cornish language funding 2010-2016 as a political ‘bribe’ Dave Sayers, 20 March 2017

During the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government of 2010-2015, Sir Eric Pickles MP was Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. In this role, Pickles signed off the first large-scale central government funding for the Cornish language, which varied annually from £150,000 to £100,000 for the financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16. That funding had a real effect on Cornish, enabling for example distribution of learning materials to all schools in Cornwall, and full-time staff to oversee different aspects of the language revival. Although this had only a modest impact on the number of fluent Cornish speakers, it has nevertheless significantly raised the profile of the language, transforming it into a more mainstream symbolic element of Cornish life.

In 2016, following the election of a solely Conservative government in 2015, the funding suddenly ended. The reason given was that such responsibilities were increasingly being devolved to local authorities under the Localism Act 2011 (introduced by Pickles in 2010), which gave local authorities responsibility – though not necessarily money – for a wide range of state activities. A copy of the letter from the Department for Communities and Local Government explaining the decision is archived here. In the context of austerity and significant cuts to Cornwall Council’s budget, this effectively ended funding for Cornish.

Pickles left the Cabinet in 2015, received a knighthood, and was appointed the UK’s Special Envoy for Post Holocaust Issues and Anti-Corruption Champion. Freed of Cabinet restraint, he has since had more latitude to speak his mind. On 20 March 2017, he appeared on the BBC’s ‘Daily Politics’ programme, which featured a February 2017 Council of Europe report urging the governmentto reconsider “the decision to cut all funding for the Cornish language in view of the disproportionate impact such a measure will have on the delicate process of revitalising a minority language when access to other public financial resources is limited” (p.2).

Speaking with Daily Politics host Jo Coburn, Pickles candidly revealed his motivations for allocating the funding in the first place – a political ‘bribe’ to secure other budgetary savings from his coalition partners. A clip of the relevant part of the programme is here, with the Pickles interview section transcribed as follows:

JC: So, what say you, Eric Pickles, have you been neglecting your duties and your obligations to the minority in Cornwall?

EP: I am the guilty man. I gave money to the Cornish language when I was Secretary of State. Now before you think this is some kind of revival, I gave it in order that the Liberal Democrats wouldn’t block, I think, half a billion pounds’ worth of savings.

JC: So it was a bribe?

EP: Oh yeah, absolutely.

JC: Well I can’t fault you for your honesty!

EP: I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I figured, I think it was thirty thousand pounds (sic) was worth half a million.

JC: Right.

EP: Half a billion.

JC: But you admit that the government’s done nothing in terms of trying to actually help or promote Cornish.

EP: I think the government’s help... should be to Cornwall, it should be to the people of Cornwall, it should be about industry in Cornwall, it should be about education in Cornwall. I’m not entirely sure. I like the idea that Cornish is going to continue in some form or another, but after all most of that [funding] went in for people learning the language which I’m sure is very beautiful.

Taken together with the letter that explained the funding cut (linked above), this suggests there would have been no central government funding at all without the coalition government. It further suggests that the current Conservative government will not be revising its position on the matter – not least because to do so would be to invite appeals about all manner of other services impacted by the Localism Act.

Some further reading on the recent history of the Cornish revival: https://www.academia.edu/13099456/, https://www.academia.edu/1424269/.