mudhook

Cornish political nationalism is not a popular take on life here, it lacks credibility on the street and overall lacks success electorally. It is a nanority among the
410 000 adults in Cornwall.

Is the lack of success down to limited publicity? Does a universal darkness in the media of Cornwall bury all nationalism? If people heard, would they not accede? If they saw, would they not love?

All organised political viewpoints struggle to be heard in the local media which is, like its readers and viewers and the national media, more interested in cute babies, rabid corgis, and misdeeds.

The Mebyon Kernow party (MK) stands in general elections and that means its leaflets are sent, post free, to every elector in the constituencies where it stands. Over the past three decades that is a lot of electors and a lot of leaflets. When MK stands in local elections its leaflets are no doubt put through many letterboxes; it has a website too. I should think most people in Cornwall are aware of MK and the claims of Cornish political nationalism.

I have explained in another post, Unfair to Mebyon Kernow, that I think MK in fairness should get money for elections. A different voting system in elections might help MK (and Labour) too.

Is the nationalist failure because there is only one variety of nationalism, a lack of choice, MK, take it or leave it? No, look at the choices.

There is a strand of the Liberal Democrat party here which is…nationalist-lite is the best description I think. It cries up the claims of Cornwall as different, unique, exceptional, duchy, whatever, and always hard done by. These claims are found on websites and in leaflets and in the other media. Much of the Libdem party which does not hold the nationalism seems to share the view that Cornwall is basically hard done by and that view in itself may unintentionally feed political nationalism. It is unclear how far people voting Libdem do so because of this fuzzy nationalism; but increasingly a distance and difference is being publicly established between the Libdems and the nationalists proper; MK and the Libdems will fight one another in every seat in Cornwall in the next general election.

Additionally, there are numerous nationalist groupuscules. Remember the Monty Python satire on the Judean struggle, half a dozen people in an alphabetical soup? It might seem a little like that but I think we should look at it positively. There’s a group specialising in every cornat interest, every nook is explored, every cranny examined, every variety of nationalism is catered for. Their memberships are undeclared and that probably indicates a very, very small proportion of the adults in Cornwall.

Of course this profusion of groups might be a counterproductive embarrass de choix but I don’t think so and the different groups do not obviously contradict one another in public though even semi-formal coordinating arrangements seem nonexistent.

Cornish political nationalism does get an airing and there is ample choice of strands in it. Nowadays the net offers possibilities of publicity and there are nationalist sites about everything including the various cornat takes on history, identity, and Cornwall’s status within the UK. Nationalist claims are made on other online sites too. Several online petitions have appeared advocating explicit nationalist political and governance policies: they receive small support; often miniscule is flattery. Letters and media releases from nationalists are published.

The local papers were full of happy photographs of the recent St Piran day parades with black-and-white Cornwall flags in abundance though the sentiment there is cultural rather than strictly political nationalism; schoolchildren do not take part in political rallies and do not march with political flags but take part in displays of local patriotism and festivals found all over Britain. Nevertheless, pop cultural events like those in Padstow, Helston, and Penzance no doubt help to acquaint some people with a nationalist as well as a local sentiment. For some the popular culture shades off into political nationalism and the sense of a national Cornwall is felt keenly.

Cornish nationalism does get publicity. I think Labour and the Conservatives in Cornwall might say more than they do. It isn’t lack of publicity or monolithic choice that is keeping nationalism a minority take on life.

So what is it?

People in Cornwall, like people all over England, well understand that you can support more local decision-making and self-government without being a nationalist. They understand, what nationalism seems to have difficulty with, the struggle of central government to balance fairly the claims of all the areas and groups in England. They know you can celebrate local culture and achievements without being a nationalist. In Liberating Cornwall and other posts I have explained that the story of a Cornwall always hard done by does not match the reality on the ground.

The people in Cornwall have heard Cornish political nationalism and the vast majority of them don’t rate what they hear. They have seen and do not love. The people have spoken, the bastards.

_______________________________________________________

MK still at base camp
Does MK speak for the people of Cornwall

To see her is to love her,
And love but her for ever
- Robert Burns Bonnie Lesley

As we slither towards unitary local government I should like to record in this post the historic council tax in Cornwall and its districts. The full details are given here. I have worked out the percentage rises over the eleven years from 1997/98 to 2007/08 for a band D property, excluding parish council tax and that is what I have put here.

Cornwall county council 99 percent increase

Caradon district council 97

Carrick district council 78

Kerrier district council 77

Penwith district council 47

North Cornwall district council 75

Restormel district council 97

Devon and Cornwall police authority 164

ENGLAND (all councils etc) 92

The typical band D council tax in Cornwall in 2007/08 ranged from £1263 to £1322, which is £24-25 a week. People living in these areas over the past decade will judge for themselves whether they have had value for money.

What sort of increases can we expect from a unitary council? More county than Penwith, I expect. The government will probably have to keep capping the rises in council tax.

Of course, we have been promised - well, I’m not sure it is an encashable and enforceable promise, more an aspiratory promise, I expect it’ll turn out to be - that moving to a unitary council “will save more than £17 million of Cornish tax payers’ money a year.” That’s a lot of bottled water or a cut in council tax. Hmm, difficult choice.

NOTE
The link to the data does not always work. The url is http://www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/ctax/data/ctaxtimes.xls

There’s an accumulation of information about dismaying homophobic abuse in schools. Last year Stonewall published a report and now the Association of teachers and lecturers (ATL) has put out a similar one and has a position paper.

Today’s Guardian has three letters which I think are realistically positive about possibilities.

The Stonewall and ATL reports are distressing. The ATL suggests that too many teachers do not challenge homophobic language and bullying and says that “homophobia remains a pervasive and persistent problem within our society, including schools and colleges.”

Schools and colleges need to understand that homophobic language and behaviour are unacceptable. As unacceptable as racism and religious bigotry. It isn’t enough for a school to have a policy against homophobia; it must effectively deal with homophobia and challenge it thoroughly and continually. Ecrasez-l’infame, homophobic behaviour and language.

I think we must assume that some schools in Cornwall have a homophobic problem too. In the light of the Stonewall and ATL reports the Cornwall education authority should explain how schools here are dealing effectively with such language and behaviour.

Back to the ejection of the migrant workers in Penzance. Penwith council has set out its arguments in a letter to the Cornishman, a local newspaper, and the blog St Ivean, which first challenged these events, has counter-replied.

I still don’t know clearly what happened, the sequence of events, whether this was the only way as Penwith council suggests, or whether there was a better way as the St Ivean suggests. We need more knowledge to be able to judge. Half a story, which is what we have at present, is not good enough.

Were the laws under which the authorities acted correctly followed? Is a dawn raid usual practice among authorities in circumstances like these? How many migrants are we talking about, were there any children (the original Cornishman report mentions a “family” so presumably there were), how many properties were involved, what was the issue with each, what are the migrants’ living circumstances now? Will they get their lost wages? Will anyone be prosecuted for anything?

There is also an unnecessary confusion about rehousing and the language of the council on this issue in the original 14 February report and in the Cornishman letter is unhelpfully fuzzy where it should be clear. I see the difficulty: the council cannot stand aside from overcrowded and unsafe accommodation, if that is what it was, and yet it does not have to rehouse temporary migrants. In such circumstances what is and should be its policy as homelessness is not acceptable either? This is a difficult question which should be publicly aired.

It isn’t just a question of more knowledge; there is an issue of how the council does things and how its actions are perceived. The quotations in the Cornishman report of 14 February suggest that some of the migrant workers were seriously unhappy at the circumstances of their ejection and that they have a perception of being treated with too little respect by the council that sought to help them. This should make Penwith and the other authorities think whether there are things they could have done differently for the same final result. It would be reassuring to be told that they have discussed the events with the migrant workers and got their considered take on it so that the views of those being helped can inform the ways of helping.

I certainly support work to ensure that migrant workers get a fair deal and I believe the council and other authorities have their interests at heart – that is unreservedly commendable and the importance and value of this work should not be lost sight of in the questions thrown up. The point now is to ascertain what happened and whether there is or isn’t a better way to deal with this sort of circumstance as migrant workers are part of life in west Cornwall and there will be other days.

The revised regional special strategy (RSS) of December 2007 proposes that
68 700 houses are built in Cornwall by 2026. For a county of 519 000 people at present that sounds a lot.

Read about the proposals here and perhaps read the parochial and largely hostile Commons debate of 22 January 2008 (beginning at column 381WH) on the strategy for the southwest generally where a reasonable concern was whether there would sufficient investment in infrastructure and Julia Goldsworthy made some positive and relevant points (column 395WH onwards). The Mebyon Kernow (MK) party has damned the proposals and the January 2008 edition of its magazine Cornish Nation called the proposals “Planning gone mad”. There are several objecting online petitions.

The figure of nearly sixty nine thousand may be too many, it may be too few, it may be just right. We do not have a Goldilocks to tell us. The public consultation later this year should help us decide.

As far as I can see the objections seem to be:

(1) 69 000 is too many as this number will damage the environment and create infrastructure problems
(2) what house building happens in Cornwall should be decided only and entirely by people or elected politicians in Cornwall
(3) houses built in Cornwall should be for local needs.

Additionally, some people consider that all new houses built in Cornwall should be affordable, which is not quite the same as (3).

An assumption behind the objections seems to be that if the number of new houses is decided by Cornwall people/politicians and such housing is only for local needs, then sixty nine thousand will be too many. I have seen no argument that shows that sixty nine thousand over twenty years is objectively too many given these assumptions. What we need from the objectors is a clear argument: how and how far will the environment be damaged and is this unavoidable and uncorrectable; what will the infrastructure problems be and can they be overcome; and, given the assumptions in the objections, how many houses should be built to meet all local need (how many for rent, how many for the various purchase schemes and for whole-house market-value purchase) and where should they be built. I realise this is a strategy not a program but it isn’t enough just to say sixty nine thousand is too many or to say a future Cornish housing board will work out the details.

More can be demanded of the RSS too. A vast house building program has been proposed which requires rigorous evidence-based justification and, although the figures are not arbitrary, more detailed explanation is needed. The RSS process should explore fully the objectors’ concerns about environment and infrastructure.

I have other worries.

I have explained before the advantages and drawbacks of localism and frankly I wonder whether, if left to a decision by the neighbourhood, any affordable housing would be built anywhere in England. At present central government, able to act for the whole country and able to limit the power of local self-interest, lays down expectations and some regulations about affordable housing. How would the RSS objectors deal with local objections and get their houses built?

I think too that mixing what should be evidence-based arguments about housing numbers with the nationalist politics of Cornish devolutionary powers and the electoral status of the regional authorities making the proposals makes it easier for the objections to be dismissed as aspects of separatism.

I’m unclear exactly what the argument in (3) means as there is an ambiguity about the term “local needs”. I assume the prime objection is to second homes and that there should be, as MK says, a focus on “affordable homes to meet local needs.” That appears to leave some room for market-value houses for aspiring and entrepreneurial locals and migrants to Cornwall.

In the meantime let me offer up some public data. The number on the affordable housing waiting list for Cornwall was 18 768 last spring. 532 affordable houses had been built the previous year, 501 nett, though this delivery rate may be speeding up now. These figures refer only to affordable houses not market-value houses and only to people already here and already old enough for a house. Are sixty nine thousand over twenty years wholly implausible?

This story about pagans in Cornwall in the seventeenth century throws an interesting light on our near past and perhaps our present.

Saveock Water

Report in Times 10 March 2008

I should have written fingernail parings…

Let’s be clear at the beginning. This is the policy of a Labour government we’re discussing.

Alongside the good news about the modest rise in the minimum wage is some bad news about the taxation of the poor.

From next month, when the income tax provisions of the last budget come in, the lowest paid will pay more income tax; the better-off will pay less. The budget abolished the 10 percent tax band and that’s the cause of the injustice. It means anyone earning less than about £19 000 a year will pay more income tax; people above that pay less.

People are liable for income tax when their work income reaches about £104 a week. People on very low earned incomes indeed will pay more tax.

Labour is rightly trying to reduce child poverty and, although progress is being made, this is proving difficult. The increase in the minimum wage will help. The loss of the 10 percent band and the consequent increase in income tax for those on low and modest incomes will reduce their take-home incomes and will worsen child poverty.

Disproportionate numbers of people in Cornwall earn low wages. This tax policy will make them worse off. The low paid in Cornwall are about to get a kick in the teeth from Labour.

I don’t know what, apart from socially unjust and stupid, you call a policy of taxing the poor more and the better-off less but I doubt it was what Labour voters thought they were voting for.

The adult national minimum wage is to rise to £5.73 an hour in October. At present it is £5.52.

It is a modest rise but still unalloyed good news for low paid workers in Cornwall, the sort of practical real-life measure that benefits them. Since the wage was introduced in 1999 it has risen by fifty nine percent.

For 18-21 year olds the wage will be £4.77 and for 16-17 year olds £3.53.

The minimum wage is not profligacy and not generous but represents affordable economic justice, there is a good case for London having a separate and higher minimum, and the abolition of the ten percent income tax band last spring penalised the low paid unjustly; but the wage has succeeded in helping the low paid without increasing unemployment - contrary to what was direfully forecast before it was introduced.

Will you read of the rise in the national minimum wage on the nationalist and Libdem websites in Cornwall? Will they welcome it?

See a previous post about the minimum wage here .

The Labour party in Cornwall has published its platform. It’s online here.

This is the first platform/manifesto from the three main parties and Labour has shown commendable industry in getting this far in its thinking. When will the Libdems and Conservatives catch up?

Yes, like all manifestos it has glittering generalities and the audacity of cliches to uplift us. It also has some sensible and progressive ideas for making Cornwall a better place for its people.

A party has three tasks in this work: to identify the problems and possibilities, to explain its ideas for tackling those and building Jerusalem, and to explain how it will bring its ideas to realisation. The Cornwall Labour platform does the first two well but the third element is missing.

It rightly draws attention to the minimum wage, Sure Start, and rising employment as examples of Labour national policies helping make life better for many people here. These are real-life achievements that have made a significant difference and suggest powerfully what we can expect of Labour at its best. They are a persuasive advertisement for what people in Cornwall can gain from a Labour government - which is part of the manifesto’s purpose. Odd, isn’t it, that these progressive achievements don’t get a mention among the prattle in nationalism about London parties and Westminster government ?

The section on the economy is representative of the platform in its ideas and flaws. There is a realistic assessment of Cornwall’s economic position, realistic and desirable aspirations for improvement, but few practical policies of realisation. Of course local wages are too low, we all know that, but saying they “need to be brought closer to national average levels” is an inadequate response. How can this be done? Similarly, Labour says we need in Cornwall more jobs of higher quality. Yes, yes, but how do we get them? How do we get the money, the “large-scale capital funding,” to expand Newquay airport?

The other sections are similarly large on aspiration. There is much on this needs to be done but where is the indication of how Cornwall Labour will try to make it happen? Labour has talked the talk and must now walk the walk.

Labour has a serious problem. It is unlikely to have a surfeit of councillors (or MPs) in Cornwall, in the immediate future at any rate, and locally is not going to be able to vote its ideas into practice. In any case many of the aspirations depend upon action by central government. Cornwall Labour therefore needs to work out how its ideas can be realised from a position of relative powerlessness. If the platform isn’t just a long wish list, the missing third element needs to be put up soon.