Pressure Mounts For Recognition of Cornish As Official Minority

The Celtic League report that the Kernow (Cornwall) branch of the League have sent a letter to Eric Pickles MP, The Secretary of State for Communities, calling on the British Government to include Cornish "..as a distinct group under the terms of the Europe Framework Convention For the Protection of National Minorities". This action is part of a wider effort to press the UK to recognise Cornwall under the the Framework and follows the declaration issued at the Celtic League's Annual General Meeting earlier this year: "This Annual General Meeting  reiterates it's call on the British Government for the European Framework for the Protection of National Minorities to be applied to the Cornish people."

This is part of a wider effort on the part of Cornish Nationalists to push for the official recognition of Cornwall as a Celtic Nation. The website "This is Cornwall", under the headline "The Cornish - A National Minority",  reports that MP Stephen Gilbert, who represents the Cornish constituency of St. Austell and Newquay, has called on the Brtish Government to include reference to Cornwall in it's submission to update the Council of Europe Convention for the protection of European minorities.  Mr. Gilbert is quoted during Local Government Questions in the House of Commons as follows: "Today marks the 15th anniversary of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities.  Will the Minister update the House on when the Cornish, with our own language and distinct identity, history and culture can expect to be included within the Framework."   Mr. Gilbert continued: "..Cornish has yet to receive the status it deserves. Whilst this is also the view of the Council of Europe, ultimately the decision is with the (British) government."

The Celtic League's website gives us the following:

Recently, results from the 8-year genetic survey, entitled “The People of the British Isles” published findings. Carried out by Oxford University under the auspices of the Wellcome Trust and headed by Professor Sir Walter Bodmer, this has determined that the Cornish people form a notably distinct group. Professor Peter Donnelly, a chief geneticist in this project has stated that: “The people in Cornwall form a genetically distinct group, different from people in Devon.” The project believes that the Cornish are a “relic group” directly descended from the very first re-colonists of a totally depopulated Britain after the final glaciations 11,500 years ago, an ethnic antiquity only shared by people in western Wales.

The case for full acknowledgement of a distinct Cornish ethnicity, and full inclusion of the Cornish people in the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities could not be clearer. Nevertheless, the UK Government has taken a stance which is both severely prejudicial and of great disadvantage to the most ancient of people in this island. We call upon you to allow an unconditional inclusion and protection of the Cornish people on this important Convention.

http://www.celticleague.net/news/cornish-continue-to-seek-official-recognition

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Cornish-considered-national-minority-says-MP/story-20220989-detail/story.html#axzz2lwuUlkkI