Renewed Demands for Cornish Language Equality in UK Census

The website “StAustellVoice” reports that the leaders of Mebyon Kernow (the Cornish Nationalist party in Cornwall), and Cornwall Council marked St Piran’s Day by calling on the government to give the Cornish people what other UK national minorities have been afforded – a tick-box in the 2021 census.

The British government is being accused of discriminating against a recognized UK minority and of suffering a “significant blind spot” when it comes to Cornwall as it is challenged to do more to support the county’s distinct ‘national’ identity

Cornwall Councillor Dick Cole has written to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Office and Home Office, demanding a Cornish tick-box on the 2021 census, which he says would be a “strong and symbolic act” to show that the “UK Government is (i) taking the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities seriously, and had (ii) started to treat the Cornish in the same manner as the UK’s other national minorities (the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish).”

Inexplicably it was recently announced that the terms ‘Asian Welsh’ and ‘Black Welsh’ will be included in the census questionnaire sent to households in Wales following talks between the Welsh government and the Office for National Statistics. 

“It is time that the government extended the same respect to Cornwall with the inclusion of a specific Cornish tick-box. We have made, and continue to make, great progress in recognising, protecting, promoting and celebrating our Cornish identity and language.  

Cornwall Council leader, Julian German, states:  “It is time that the government extended the same respect to Cornwall with the inclusion of a specific Cornish tick-box. We have made, and continue to make, great progress in recognising, protecting, promoting and celebrating our Cornish identity and language.”  

Read the Full Article Here: http://www.staustellvoice.co.uk/news/73/article/7143/