The Cornish Flag
The 'Cornish self-government movement' (sometimes referred to as ''Cornish nationalism'') is a
social movement which seeks greater for the area of
Cornwall. The movement's advocates argue that Cornwall is not merely a
county of
England (which is its current administrative status) but a
duchy and a distinctive
nation which has never been formally incorporated into England via an
Act of Union. Supporters of Cornish self-government who assert that Cornwall is, or ought to be, a separate legal entity from England do not necessarily mean to advocate full
independence from the
United Kingdom, but rather seek official recognition for Cornwall as one of the
constituent countries or
home nations of the UK.
Some supporters of Cornish
self-government question the legal legitimacy of English rule in Cornwall, due to the failure of the former
Parliament of England to ever pass an Act of Union, although their claims are not generally recognised within the United Kingdom (or sometimes within Cornwall itself). However, many see some degree of autonomy as a stepping stone towards this, and are supportive of the
Cornish Assembly Campaign.
The Cornish independence movement received unexpected publicity in
2004, when
Channel 4's
alternative Christmas message, (featuring
The Simpsons) showed
Lisa Simpson chanting ''Rydhsys rag Kernow lemmyn'' (freedom for Cornwall now) and holding a placard saying "UK OUT OF CORNWALL".
Political parties and pressure groups
★
Mebyon Kernow is the key political party advocating greater Cornish
home rule. Since
2004 Mebyon Kernow has been a member of the Europe-wide political group, the
European Free Alliance (alongside the
Scottish National Party and
Plaid Cymru - Party of Wales), which has five Members of the
European Parliament (two from the SNP, one from Plaid Cymru, one from the
Republican Left of Catalonia and one
Latvian MEP), and is part of the
Greens/EFA group. Mebyon Kernow has not contested European Parliament elections itself.
[1]
★ The
Celtic League and
Celtic Congress have a Cornish branch and recognise Cornwall as a Celtic Nation alongside
Ireland,
Scotland, the
Isle of Man,
Wales and
Brittany. The league is a political pressure group that campaigns for Independence and Celtic cooperation.
★ The
Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament acts as a pressure group on Cornish constitutional and cultural issues. The websites of the CSP provides an overview of their main points and current campaigns. The CSP has one of its members in the
Federal Union of European Nationalities (
FUEN). In
1977 the
Plaid Cymru MP
Dafydd Wigley in Parliament asked the
Attorney General for
England and Wales if he would provide the date upon which enactments of the
Charter of Pardon were rescinded. The reply, received on
14th May 1977, stated that a Stannator's right to veto Westminster legislation had never been formally withdrawn.
★ The
Cornish Nationalist Party was formed in 1975 by
Dr James Whetter and is currently not registered to contest elections/
★
Cornish Solidarity are a non-partisan political pressure group that calls for the recognition of the ethnic Cornish as a national minority.
★
John Angarrack of
Cornwall 2000, the
Human Rights organisation, has written two books to date, ''Breaking the Chains'' and ''Our Future is History''. They detail many of the core issues of the Cornish national movement as well as a re-examination of Cornish history.
★ ''
Tyr Gwyr Gweryn'' (Cornish for ''land, truth, people'') was originally a focus group formed out of members of 'Cowethas Flamank', a Cornish affairs group, and participants in Kescusulyans Kernow (Conference on Cornwall) having a special interest in the constitution of Cornwall. TGG has recently posted to its website, the transcript of the dispute between the Crown & Duchy of Cornwall (1855-1857) over ownership the Cornish Foreshore. This has been done in order to place the previously hidden legal argument and evidence, submitted for arbitration, into the public domain.
★ The Cornish branch of the
Green Party of England and Wales also campaigns on a manifesto of devolution to Cornwall and Cornish minority issues. In the 2005 general election the Green party struck a partnership deal with Mebyon Kernow
[2].
★
An Gof was a militant organisation, which was active in the early 1980s. A message was sent in 2007 claiming that it had reformed and was responsible for graffiti in various places around Cornwall and attacks on St. George's flags. Later in 2007, it claimed to have merged with another group to form the
Cornish National Liberation Army. A message was sent claiming to be from this organisation, threatening celebrity chefs Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver, blaming them for the increase in house prices caused by the trend towards English people owning second homes in Cornwall. It is far from clear whether this is a real organisation.
★ CornishnotEnglish.com is a website run by a member of the
Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament with links to websites of the Cornish self-government movement.
History of the Cornish self-government movement
Henry Jenner was an important figure in early
20th-century Cornish national awareness. He made the case for Cornwall's membership in the
Celtic Congress, pioneered the movement to revive the
Cornish language, and founded the Cornish
Gorseth.
Traditionally, much support to Cornish self-government has come from supporters of
Welsh self-government, who have often seen the Cornish as their
Brythonic Celtic kindred. For example, Mebyon Kernow has a twinning arrangement with the
Blaenau Gwent branch of
Plaid Cymru.
Some intellectual support for Cornish self-government has come from the
Institute of Cornish Studies, affiliated to the
University of Exeter.
In
2000, the
Cornish Constitutional Convention launched a campaign for a
Cornish Assembly. This was a cross-party movement representing many political voices and positions in Cornwall, from Mebyon Kernow and Cornish Solidarity to the
Liberal Democrats and
Conservatives. It collected over 50,000 petition signatures.
Cornwall County Council commissioned an opinion poll by
MORI on this subject. The poll was conducted in February 2003 and showed 55% of the Cornish public in favour of an assembly.
A distinct culture/ethnicity
Many supporters will, in addition to making legal or constitutional arguments, stress that the Cornish are a distinct
ethnic group or
nation, that people in Cornwall typically refer to 'England' as beginning east of the
River Tamar, and that there is a
Cornish language. If correct they argue the Cornish therefore have a right to national
self determination. ''For further information on these topics, see
Cornwall,
Constitutional status of Cornwall,
Cornish language,
Culture of Cornwall,
Cornish people etc.''
Campaigners in 2001 for the first time prevailed upon the UK census to count Cornish ethnicity as a write-in option on the national census, although there was no separate Cornish tick box.
In
2004 school children in Cornwall could also record their
ethnicity as Cornish on the schools
census. Additionally, the
Council of Europe has been applying increasing pressure on the UK government to recognise the Cornish for protection under the Council's
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
In the world of Cornish sport also can be found expressions of Cornish national identity. In 2004 a campaign was started to field a Cornish national team in the
2006 Commonwealth Games.
[3]
Role of Celtic identity and criticism
The notion that the Cornish are a separate ethnicity is usually tied up with the notion that the Cornish are of Celtic blood, unlike most people in the rest of England. Geneticist
Bryan Sykes has criticised this notion. He claims that the Celtic identity only arose in the early 18th century, and believes that this was invented as linguistic terminology rather than an ethnic group.
Edward Lyhud noticed the similarities between Breton, Cornish, Irish, Scots Gaelic and Welsh, so he grouped them together as "Celtic". However, Sykes questions whether there ever was a Celtic people at all.
[1]
Cornwall and the Duchy of Cornwall
County or Country?
Some supporters of self-government argue that the
de jure constitutional status of Cornwall is a
Duchy and
country and therefore not a
county of England; the
Duchy of Cornwall and current
UK government deny this claim. Supporters of self-government often point to a lack of co-operation shown by the Duchy of Cornwall authorities when requests are made for an investigation of constitutional issues. In
1997 the
Liberal Democrat Andrew George MP attempted to raise a Duchy-related question; he was prevented by an injunction that disallows MPs raising any questions in Parliament that are in any way related to the Duchy. At the time he was told it was a "restricted action"; to raise such a Duchy-related question might "cast reflections on the sovereign or the royal family" and that there was a "similar injunction on speeches"
History
Historically Cornwall was certainly recognised as separate: The Italian scholar
Polydore Vergil in his famous ''
Anglica Historia'', published in
1535, wrote that:
'the whole Countrie of Britain ...is divided into iiii partes; whereof the one is inhabited of Englishmen, the other of Scottes, the third of Wallshemen, [and] the fowerthe of Cornishe people, which all differ emonge them selves, either in tongue, ...in manners, or ells in lawes and ordinaunces.'
Writing in
1616, Arthur Hopton stated:
'England is ...divided into 3 great Provinces, or Countries ...every of them speaking a several and different language, as English, Welsh and Cornish.'
During the
Tudor period many travellers were clear that the Cornish were commonly regarded as a separate ethnic group. For example Lodovico Falier, an Italian diplomat at the Court of
Henry VIII said 'The language of the English, Welsh and Cornish men is so different that they do not understand each other.' He went on to give the alleged 'national charecteristics' of the three peoples, saying for example 'the Cornishman is poor, rough and boorish'
Another notable example is
Gaspard de Coligny Chatillon - the
French Ambassador in
London, who wrote saying that England was not a united whole as it 'contains Wales and Cornwall, natural enemies of the rest of England, and speaking a different language.'
It seems these views remained the same through the 16th century, after the death of Henry's daughter,
Elizabeth I, in
1603, the
Venetian ambassador wrote that the late queen had ruled over five different 'peoples': 'English, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish ...and Irish'
It seems however that the recognition by outsiders of the Cornish as a separate people declined with the language, which by the
19th century had essentially ceased to be used.
The Cornish Stannary Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights
In April 2006 the Cornish Stannary Parliament lodged a case with the
European Court of Human Rights regarding the case for Cornwall, in respect of alleged violations of the
European Convention of Human Rights, Articles 6, (independent and impartial courts); 8, (respect family life); 10, (freedom of expression); 13, (violations by officials); 14 with Protocol 12, (discrimination on the grounds of association with a national minority, property, birth or other status); 17, (the official destruction of rights); Protocol 1 Article 1, (property rights) with 385 supporting documents. The Court stated that it: "will deal with the case as soon as practicable".
Objectives of the Cornish Stannary Parliament's application to the European Court of Human Rights 2006 are:-
1. To request a ruling by the Court that the Convention rights of the Applicants are violated on the grounds of bias and discrimination in the legislative, judicial and executive decision making process adopted by the government of the United Kingdom in relation to Cornwall on account of the priorities being provided in terms of 'rights, property and profits' (Crown Proceedings Act 1947, Doc.37) in Cornwall for the
Duke of Cornwall as Heir to the Throne causing harassment, intimidation and deprivation to the Applicants as members of the indigenous
Celtic people of Cornwall.
2. To request a ruling by the Court that the
Duchy of Cornwall Estate, as the provider of an income for the Heir to the Throne, be designated a public body as is the case with the Crown Estate which has no holdings in Cornwall. (Doc.40+95).
3. To request a ruling by the Court that the protection of the Convention rights of the Applicants requires the government of the
United Kingdom to apply the principle of equality before the law (Doc.36) in the distribution of state funding so that the culture, heritage, traditions and language of the indigenous Cornish national minority of
Britain is funded proportionate to that currently made available for the culture, heritage, traditions and language of the English national majority of Britain as well as the
Welsh,
Gaels and
Ulster Scots.
4. To request a ruling by the Court that the protection of the Convention rights of the Applicants requires enforceable adherence to the principle of equality before the law in legislation relevant to land ownership, whether designated Crown land or otherwise, and the implementation of the measures necessary to realise the discontinuance of exemptions from planning legislation and regulations (Doc.93) in order to eliminate the suspicion of the official use of planning laws to maximise the profits of one state aided organisation, impose deprivation on, and suppress the Celtic identity and cultural heritage of, the Applicants and other
Cornish people.
5. To request a ruling by the Court that the exclusion of the Cornish from the provisions of the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities constitutes a violation of the Convention rights of the Applicants.
6.To request a ruling by the Court that the protection of the Convention rights of individuals in ‘association with a national minority’ requires the inclusion of a guarantee of the international principle of equality before the law within the legal systems of applicant states and member states as a defining qualification for membership of the
Council of Europe.
See also
★
Corineus
★
List of topics related to Cornwall
★
★
Constitutional status of Cornwall
★
Cornish Assembly
★
Nationalism
★
Pan-Celticism
★
Modern Celts
★
Celt
★
Cultural imperialism
★
List of active autonomist and secessionist movements
External links
★
The Cornish Stannary Parliament
★
Mebyon Kernow
★
Celtic League
★
Celtic Congress
★
The Federal Union of European Nationalities
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