I am a Penryn born Cornishman from the United Kingdom and a growing Cornish and Breton speaker. I have been raised by a family and community that has endowed me with what can be best described as a Cornish national identity, another way to look at it would be of Cornish ethnicity.
The Cornish are a Celtic ethnic group and nation of the southwest of Great Britain. We have our own lesser used Celtic language (Cornish), sports, festivals, cuisine, music, dance, history and identity. Cornwall also has a distinct constitutional history as a Duchy with an autonomous stannary parliament.
The results from the 2001 UK population census show over thirty seven thousand people hold a Cornish identity instead of English or British. On this census, to claim to be Cornish, you had to deny being British, by crossing out the British option and then write Cornish in the others box. Additionally the decision to collect information on Cornish identity was extremely badly publicised.
Expressions of Cornish identity can be found in everything, from a campaign for an international Cornish sports team (like Scotland England and Wales) -http://home.btconnect.com/graham-hart/ccga.htm - through the campaign for a disestablished church of Cornwall - http://www.freethespirit.org.uk/indexr.htm - to the campaign for devolved autonomous government - http://www.cornishassembly.org/.
How many more would have described themselves as Cornish if they did not have to deny being British or if there had been a Cornish tick box? How many people knew that it was an option? How many ticked British but feel themselves to be Cornish British?
Cornwall Council's Feb 2003 MORI Poll showed 55% in favour of a democratically-elected, fully-devolved regional assembly for Cornwall, (this was an increase from 46% in favour in a 2002 poll). Many English and other nationalities who have settled in Cornwall wish to see an assembly as some of these people identify closely with Cornwall and actually feel 'Cornish'. London, Wales and Scotland have devolved assemblies and are still part of the United Kingdom as well as the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey - why not Cornwall ? The Cornish Assembly petition was signed by 50,000 people, which is the largest expression of popular support for devolved power in the whole of the United Kingdom and possibly Europe.
In July 2000 Mebyon Kernow launched the Declaration for a Cornish Assembly campaign which some three months later led to the creation of The Cornish Constitutional Convention with the objective of establishing a devolved Assembly for Cornwall. In less than two years, it had won the support of over 50,000 people, which equates to more than 10% of the Cornish electorate. A delegation led by the West Cornwall Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George and representatives of the Cornish Constitutional Convention (Bert Biscoe, Richard Ford, Dick Cole, David Fieldsend and Andrew Climo Thompson) presented 50,000 declarations to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 12th December 2001 calling for a Cornish Assembly. This was an opportunity to give the people of Cornwall the chance to demand greater control over their own future.
The UK government has so far failed to recognise the Cornish people under the Council of Europe’s framework convention for the protection of national minorities.
The UK government has failed to give the people of Cornwall the democratic referendum on greater autonomy and a devolved assembly that they have shown a demand for.
A recommendation by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the ‘concept of nation’ has been backed by the European Parliament regional and minority language Intergroup.
The PACE recommendation stated that, “Everyone should be free to define themselves as a member of a cultural “nation”, irrespective of their citizenship”. In response, the Intergroup commented that ‘Council of Europe member states should avoid defining themselves in exclusively ethnic terms, and should do their utmost to help their minorities, a source of enrichment, to flourish’. Today, both the French and the British Governments still deny people from some of the Celtic countries to legally describe themselves in terms of their Celtic national identities in all areas of life. This is particularly the case where Brittany is concerned, where the French Government have been repeatedly condemned by international organisations and other bodies, for their denial of these basic human rights to the Breton people.
Intergroup leader Mr Csaba Tabajdi, Member of the European Parliament, said that, this recommendation is of utter importance, representing a paradigm change in the protection of minorities in Europe. It contains a new, elaborate concept of nation.
The recommendation states that: The term “nation” is deeply rooted in peoples, culture and history and incorporates fundamental elements of their identity. “It is also closely linked to political ideologies, which have exploited it and adulterated its original meaning. Furthermore, in view of the diversity of languages spoken in European countries, a concept such as nation is quite simply not translatable in many countries where, at best, only rough translations are to be found in certain national languages
Full text of the recommendation: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta06/EREC1735.htm
I would like to know your position on national and linguistic minorities.
I have enclosed some links to documents of high quality that examine the Cornish question I do hope you take the time to study them.
The Cornish and the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities http://www.geecee.co.uk/CNMR/
An Burow, the Cornish Language News Website
http://www.cornish-language-news.org/
The Cornish: A Neglected Nation? from the BBC by Mark Stoyle
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/cornish_nation_01.shtml
Tyr-Gwyr-Gweryn, Cornish history, identity and constitution.
http://www.kernowtgg.co.uk/
The Cornish Stannary Parliament, a Cornish civil rights group
http://www.cornish-stannary-parliament.abelgratis.com/
Mebyon Kernow
http://www.mebyonkernow.org/Public/Stories/89-1.shtml
Eurominority
http://www.eurominority.org/version/eng/
I look forward to your response.
Lowena dhys
Nationality exists in the minds of men, its only conceivable habitat. Outside men's minds there can be no nationality, because nationality is a manner of looking at oneself not an entity an sich. Common sense is able to detect it, and the only human discipline that can describe and analyse it is psychology. This awareness, this sense of nationality, this national sentiment, is more than a characteristic of a nation. It is nationhood itself.
The Cornish are a Celtic ethnic group and nation of the southwest of Great Britain. We have our own lesser used Celtic language (Cornish), sports, festivals, cuisine, music, dance, history and identity. Cornwall also has a distinct constitutional history as a Duchy with an autonomous stannary parliament.
The results from the 2001 UK population census show over thirty seven thousand people hold a Cornish identity instead of English or British. On this census, to claim to be Cornish, you had to deny being British, by crossing out the British option and then write Cornish in the others box. Additionally the decision to collect information on Cornish identity was extremely badly publicised.
Expressions of Cornish identity can be found in everything, from a campaign for an international Cornish sports team (like Scotland England and Wales) -http://home.btconnect.com/graham-hart/ccga.htm - through the campaign for a disestablished church of Cornwall - http://www.freethespirit.org.uk/indexr.htm - to the campaign for devolved autonomous government - http://www.cornishassembly.org/.
How many more would have described themselves as Cornish if they did not have to deny being British or if there had been a Cornish tick box? How many people knew that it was an option? How many ticked British but feel themselves to be Cornish British?
Cornwall Council's Feb 2003 MORI Poll showed 55% in favour of a democratically-elected, fully-devolved regional assembly for Cornwall, (this was an increase from 46% in favour in a 2002 poll). Many English and other nationalities who have settled in Cornwall wish to see an assembly as some of these people identify closely with Cornwall and actually feel 'Cornish'. London, Wales and Scotland have devolved assemblies and are still part of the United Kingdom as well as the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey - why not Cornwall ? The Cornish Assembly petition was signed by 50,000 people, which is the largest expression of popular support for devolved power in the whole of the United Kingdom and possibly Europe.
In July 2000 Mebyon Kernow launched the Declaration for a Cornish Assembly campaign which some three months later led to the creation of The Cornish Constitutional Convention with the objective of establishing a devolved Assembly for Cornwall. In less than two years, it had won the support of over 50,000 people, which equates to more than 10% of the Cornish electorate. A delegation led by the West Cornwall Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George and representatives of the Cornish Constitutional Convention (Bert Biscoe, Richard Ford, Dick Cole, David Fieldsend and Andrew Climo Thompson) presented 50,000 declarations to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 12th December 2001 calling for a Cornish Assembly. This was an opportunity to give the people of Cornwall the chance to demand greater control over their own future.
The UK government has so far failed to recognise the Cornish people under the Council of Europe’s framework convention for the protection of national minorities.
The UK government has failed to give the people of Cornwall the democratic referendum on greater autonomy and a devolved assembly that they have shown a demand for.
A recommendation by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the ‘concept of nation’ has been backed by the European Parliament regional and minority language Intergroup.
The PACE recommendation stated that, “Everyone should be free to define themselves as a member of a cultural “nation”, irrespective of their citizenship”. In response, the Intergroup commented that ‘Council of Europe member states should avoid defining themselves in exclusively ethnic terms, and should do their utmost to help their minorities, a source of enrichment, to flourish’. Today, both the French and the British Governments still deny people from some of the Celtic countries to legally describe themselves in terms of their Celtic national identities in all areas of life. This is particularly the case where Brittany is concerned, where the French Government have been repeatedly condemned by international organisations and other bodies, for their denial of these basic human rights to the Breton people.
Intergroup leader Mr Csaba Tabajdi, Member of the European Parliament, said that, this recommendation is of utter importance, representing a paradigm change in the protection of minorities in Europe. It contains a new, elaborate concept of nation.
The recommendation states that: The term “nation” is deeply rooted in peoples, culture and history and incorporates fundamental elements of their identity. “It is also closely linked to political ideologies, which have exploited it and adulterated its original meaning. Furthermore, in view of the diversity of languages spoken in European countries, a concept such as nation is quite simply not translatable in many countries where, at best, only rough translations are to be found in certain national languages
Full text of the recommendation: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta06/EREC1735.htm
I would like to know your position on national and linguistic minorities.
I have enclosed some links to documents of high quality that examine the Cornish question I do hope you take the time to study them.
The Cornish and the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities http://www.geecee.co.uk/CNMR/
An Burow, the Cornish Language News Website
http://www.cornish-language-news.org/
The Cornish: A Neglected Nation? from the BBC by Mark Stoyle
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/cornish_nation_01.shtml
Tyr-Gwyr-Gweryn, Cornish history, identity and constitution.
http://www.kernowtgg.co.uk/
The Cornish Stannary Parliament, a Cornish civil rights group
http://www.cornish-stannary-parliament.abelgratis.com/
Mebyon Kernow
http://www.mebyonkernow.org/Public/Stories/89-1.shtml
Eurominority
http://www.eurominority.org/version/eng/
I look forward to your response.
Lowena dhys
Nationality exists in the minds of men, its only conceivable habitat. Outside men's minds there can be no nationality, because nationality is a manner of looking at oneself not an entity an sich. Common sense is able to detect it, and the only human discipline that can describe and analyse it is psychology. This awareness, this sense of nationality, this national sentiment, is more than a characteristic of a nation. It is nationhood itself.
