Anti Cornish Abuse Increases

The participation of England’s football team in the football world cup is known to increase cases of domestic violence and tragically, the police have now launched a murder investigation following the death of a 49 year old man in Brixham, Devon following a football match between England and Belgium.

Sadly, the instances of abuse aimed at anyone declaring themselves Cornish or indeed, failing to show open support of England’s football team has also increased.

This bigotry does flare up from time to time and indeed has resulted in many bloggers discussing the issue on their websites.

Those challenging any person who chooses not to support England or even when the matter of football is not under discussion invariably resort to becoming abusive.

It is really difficult in these times to be a member of a minority group, even one which has been officially recognised as such and incorporated into the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

The local on line news site ‘Cornwall Live’ * has published a series of football related articles both on its website and also on its Facebook site. 

There are countless examples of the abuse on line and it appears to easily slip out.

Here are just some of them:

Donald Keebles - Funny how all of a sudden the “I’m Cornish, not English “retards have suddenly rediscovered their Englishness again.

Mark Halls - This sums the Cornish up they actually don’t think they are part of England

Where is the support for our team? No houses seem to have flags out ,well we have 3 out but then we are not from inbread (sic) Cornwall

Richard Hinde - Inbreeding springs to mind.

There are far more offensive comments but we leave these to your imagination. Many of these distasteful comments are completely unsolicited.

Of course, it does not help when the ‘local’ newspaper publishes articles during these times which are bound to stir up such hateful comments but we do understand the procedures involved with deriving income from internet ‘clicks’ which perhaps explains the reportage. Sadly though, the remarks are allowed to remain despite complaints being made.

It has been reported that Cornwall Council surprisingly decided to fly the flag of St George whilst England was playing Colombia and this caused much disquiet amongst many. It was even interpreted by the journalist that this may show Cornwall Council embracing ‘Brexit’. This was again reported by ‘Cornwall Live’ and resulted in even more nastiness and imperialist comments on various social media and other sites. A common remark is that Cornwall and Cornish people are somehow ‘owned’ by the English people and that they somehow ‘pay’ for us and those resident in Cornwall should be grateful.

Cornwall is denied the right to participate in these sort of events. It is therefore inevitable that many football fans in Cornwall will support the England football team. What is sad is that a feral and foul mouthed few choose to claim to support the England football team which is itself pleasingly made up of a considerable number of players from differing ethnic backgrounds.

Naturally, a number of Cornish people and indeed many others, do not support the England team and that is their right and should be respected.

How different is this football game and many of its supporters when compared to the conduct of those supporting Cornwall’s rugby teams.

Sadly, we can only expect abuse and insult whilst the England team participates in the football tournament and many dread the outcome of an overall win.

Back in 2000, the then Home Secretary Jack Straw said the English had used their "propensity to violence to subjugate Ireland, Wales and Scotland" whilst the then Conservative Party leader William Hague said: "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."

Tragically, a small percentage of football supporters choose to live up to those remarks and blight not only themselves but also their fellow fans and the whole competition.

Meanwhile, we have advised one and all to restrict engagement with any aggressive England football fans and to carefully shield National Identity during these inflammatory times. 

Kernow bys vyken!

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

Elected Members of the KMTU Steering Group 

* ‘Cornwall Live’ describes itself as the online home of the West Briton, Cornish Guardian and Cornishman newspapers and Cornwall Today magazine