h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dugentil,

I received an email today from "Fulub" who was seeking views from various groups/individuals for a "Cornwall24" forum.

Here it is

----------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir/Madam
>>
>> I am a Penryn born Cornishman and i believe my identity to be Cornish
>> and not English. I am a member of Mebyon Kernow and support all forms
>> of empowerment for Cornwall and the Cornish public.
>>
>> I would like to ask where your group stands on the following two issues.
>>
>> 1) Devolution to a Cornish assembly
>>
>> 2) The inclusion of the Cornish for protection under the Council of
>> Europe's framework convention for the protection of national
>> minorities.
>>
>> I have enclosed three links to documents of high quality that examine
>> the Cornish question i do hope you take the time to study them.
>>
>> Inconvenient Peripheries Ethnic Identity and the United Kingdom
>> Estate, The cases of “Protestant Ulster” and Cornwall’ by prof Philip
>> Payton http://www.psa.ac.uk/cps/1996/payt.pdf
>>
>> The Cornish: A Neglected Nation? from the BBC by Mark Stoyle
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/cornish_nation_01.shtml
>>
>> The Cornish and the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the
>> Protection of National Minorities
>> http://www.geecee.co.uk/CNMR/
>>
>> I look forward to your response which i intend to post on the
>> Cornwall 24 message board.
>>
>> Regards
---------------------------------------------------

I have responded in a personal capacity and Fulub has subsequently encouraged others from the "celtic devon" forum to do the same.

http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=484&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

If you choose to then I encourage you to say your piece - but please stress where that it is a personal view!!.

cornwall24 appears to be a fairly popular site

Cheers



NB Nxylas - I believe Fulub may have contacted you direct on the basis of the WS perspective.

>>NB Nxylas - I believe Fulub may have contacted you direct on the basis of the WS perspective<<

Not yet. He may have contacted the official WS email address, in which case it would go to the secretary, not me.

Ozzie Exile,

All three of Fulub's links contain gross distortions of history, particularly the last of the three.

There is no evidence for the "Athelstan Settlement", and the Britons were not forcibly expelled from Devon.

The County of Cornwall is not a duchy. About half of the Duchy of Cornwall estate is in Devon.

The "Cornish" rebelions referred to also included Devonians. Indeed the 1549 Prayerbook Rebelion started in Devon.

The Stannary Parliaments were not a uniquely Cornish institution, as Devon had its own Stannary Parliament. The Charter of Pardon of 1508 did not give extra powers to the Cornish Stannary Pariament. In fact it withdrew powers of legislation which the Devon Stannary Parliament continued to enjoy.

I would ask the question: What do the Cornish (in particular) need to be protected from? They are certainly not a 'racial' (Indigenous British) minority, as the Indigenous British gene pool constitutes a majority, even in England.

Plymouth Exile,

Yes, I agree that some of the links were less than "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth", and I tried to refer to that in my response.

I am not sure what Fulub expects the EU to actually do if the Cornish are declared a protected minority. I would not expect much - except a generous helping of red tape for the UK government - such is the EU beast.

I was intrigued by some of the other responses though!!

Yes and you can read those responses here: http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-484.htm

Do people google looking for threads to put far right, often offensive, opinions on? I agree with regard to Devon what one of the Cornish posters says about Cornwall, if you live in Devon, contribute to Devon and love Devon you are a Devonian. The SNP have a similar stance with regards to Scotland. New Scots For Independence etc.

I think though approaching the EU is a good way to go. The proprosed directorate on minority and regional languages would be aimed at preserving and encouraging the use of those languages which are not official. After all the nation states have proved themselves incapable of doing so, or even tried to eradicate regional languages. The UK, France, and Spain have all fallen into this category and in the former Belgium as late as the 1960s treated the most widely spoken of it's official languages (Flemish) as a second class language. The French changed their contstitution to state that "the language of the republic is French" to get around EU directives on the use of regional languages where they are most needed, such as road signage. Hence Breton, Alsatian, Occitane, Basque, Corsican etc are only permitted on boundary signs, not signs giving directions or instructions the way Welsh is used in Wales. The European Law does not interfere with countries constitutions or constitutional laws.

With this new directorate this might change. So i'd say go for it with Cornish. And remember the EU's motto - "Unity in Diversity", how many other bodies in the world have 26 official languages?

And I use regional languages or minority languages rather then call them "national" to avoid confusion. A national language is the official language of a nation state (ie a national language has an army) though this does confuse the matter with Gaelic and Welsh as both Scotland and Wales are recognised as being nations within the UK, and Cataluña's proposed new statute would grant it that status within the Kingdom of Spain.... but I think the division stands.

I agree Tivyboy and i think political nationalism has played a huge part in obtaining these rights for linguistic and ethnic minorities.

Stonger government, autonomy, for these regions would only benefit the cultures within.

http://www.eurominority.org/version/eng/reports-detail.asp?id_actualite=789