Westminster ignores report on Cornish at its peril!

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

Although it did not make many headlines, last week the recommendations of the Council of Europe's Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM) was published.

The Cornish people were included in this Convention back in the spring of 2014 and the report has given us all an insight into what the Council of Europe makes of the Westminster’s treatment of the Cornish National Minority.

As expected, the report was damning of treatment of the Cornish people and Cornwall at the hands of the distant of uncaring Westminster Government and even Cornwall Council described the Government’s handling of the many recommendations as ‘disappointing’.

The comprehensive document raises serious concerns over the way in which the Government is currently meeting its legal obligations and calls on the Government to take all necessary steps to ensure access to the linguistic, cultural and human rights provided by the Framework Convention to the Cornish minority. 

As is usually the case, the situation for Cornwall differs enormously from that in Scotland, the north of Ireland and Wales all of which enjoy limited home rule and therefore far better treatment.

The Council of Europe report was actually sent to the Westminster Government some time ago to enable it to prepare a formal response to the findings.  Unfortunately, while Ministers chose to share it with the devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and north of Ireland prior to publication, they did not provide a copy to Cornwall. 

Indeed, the subsequent Westminster Government response to it ignored every single one of the recommendations regarding the Cornish.  Mind you, in the face of such utter ignorance as demonstrated by Government Minister Sajid Javid who last October told Cornwall to ‘get in line’ with the South West, perhaps this is not surprising.

His remarks caused much anger and are indicative of just what the Conservative Government thinks of Cornwall where misguided policies down the years have utterly failed us here.

The Cornish now have rights and Cornwall is far more than a holiday camp and a dumping ground for excess population. We are entitled to better treatment as recommended in the Council of Europe’s report and we demand it.

In continually ignoring the legal rights of the Cornish people, Westminster is playing with fire and it is time they woke up to that fact.  

As a reminder, the Council of Europe is not related to the European Union. The United Kingdom was a founder-member of the Council in 1949 created following much support from Winston Churchill. Now with 47 member-states, the people of Britain have not voted to leave it.

A link to the report may be found here:

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

 Kernow Bys Vyken!

 Tony Leamon

Treasurer – Kernow Matters to Us