Had to take our boy up to Treliske yesterday (nothing serious) but on the registration form they gave the option of White British and then White Cornish.
My missus was ready to go for White British on the grounds that neither of us were born in Cornwall (although have been here since 6 yrs old). Anyway, I insisted we did the boy the favour of registering him Cornish.
I wasn't allowed to call him Jago so at least I get to register him as Cornish!
The divide and rule policy of making people choose between Cornish and British - and this is difficult for many people - is a result of there being no 'monitoring of monitoring'. It is not necessary to make people choose and with orthodox formatting this choice does not have to be made.
The result is that the number of Cornish people recorded is inaccurate and both smaller and more insignificant than it really is. There are other implications - is it rebellious to go for the Cornish option? By rejecting 'British' does it mean you are opting for statelessness? Lot of people aren't going to like that - and it is absolutely and completely unnecessary. 'Good practice' in ethnicity monitoring is foreign to publicly funded institutions in Cornwall.
In actual fact, this concept is foreign to ALL UK public authorities for the simple reason that everybody is using confusing, inconsistent and ambiguous terminology. Whereas the UK public is told that they are being ethnically monitored, in reality, they are being monitored on the basis of their physical characteristics - in other words, their racial background. It needs to be sorted out urgently.
In so far as the "Cornish" are concerned, in minority terms, they are a stateless minority, or a minority without kin-state, there being no Cornish state to look after their interests.
I think the CRE gives pretty clear guidelines though that are easy to follow and they show examples of a drop down format that doesn't need a choice to be made between British and e.g. Cornish. They also recommend a 'classification system based on ethnic origin'.
In Cornwall we have a specific ethnic situation and personal preferences on behalf of the people who design these forms should not take precedence.
Wow, stateless - that's quite a big idea.
However, we do have British passports and for many people that counts for something (I think).
Being Cornish has got nothing to do with your physical appearance so why should there be "black" and "white" designations? It's quite ridiculous.
To my knowledge, although the UK state authorities have come up with a peculiar system that distinguishes between "white" and "black" British people, they have yet to introduce a "White Caribbean" sub-group and, more interestingly, I have yet to encounter any references to "Black English", "Indian English" or "Chinese English" etc, so it is quite unreasonable and inconsistent, therefore, to make demands for such a categorisation as "Black Cornish" until they do!
I should also like to know if eg St George's Hospital, Tooting or eg Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading etc get their patients to choose between 'White British' and 'White English'.
That would be interesting to find out. However, I suspect that, in so far as the authorities are concerned, the English are all white!
I feel safe in making such a statement on the basis that the BBC, the ITV and all newspapers recently referred to the English born Pakistani, under sentence of death in a Pakistani jail, as "British". There was not a single reference to him being English!
It's no big idea. There is a very large number of European minorities that are stateless. Examples include the Welsh, Cornish, Scottish, Frisian, Sorbians, Basques, Ladins, Rhaeto-Romantsche, Aromunians, Aromanians, Sami, Bretons, Occitanians, Kassubians, They are stateless because they have no "nation" state to look after their interests in the territory in which they reside, unlike the so-called "national minorities" that include such examples as the German minority in Hungary and the Danish minority in Germany who are looked after by their respective countries of origin.
All members of the Cornish minority in Cornwall have British passports but do not have the benfit of an independent Cornish nation on the Continent or elsewhere to take care of, and intervene, in their interests.
Hunlef, you forgot English, Cumbrians, Northumbrians, Shetland Islanders, Orkney Islanders (Devonians? people from Fife?). Even so, I disagree that these people that you have are all stateless. That's very defeatest. I know from which website you might have taken it from too, Eurominority.org?
Airport closure was 'responsible'
The Civil Aviation Authority says the decision to close Newquay Airport was difficult but responsible.
Christmas tree is really rubbish
A giant Christmas tree made from recycled plastic bags and bottles goes on display at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
NEWQUAY AIRPORT CLOSURE: “HEADS MUST ROLL”
Stephen Gilbert, the prospective local MP for Newquay, has said that “heads must roll” over the unexpected closure of Newquay Airport and has called for a full enquiry into what went wrong.
Important Information regarding Air Southwest flights to/from Newquay Airport.
We have been advised that Newquay Airport will be closed from 1 December to 19 December 2008 inclusive. This is due to issues with the handover of air traffic control from the RAF to the airport authority.
English Heritage get one thing right at least
English heritage have joined with a variety of other organisations in opposing the planned incinerator in St. Dennis on grounds that they have failed to recognise or address the impact that the proposals will have on the wider landscape of St. Dennis.
MANX GOVERNMENT SUFFER WORST HUMILIATION BY THE UK IN LIVING MEMORY
The Isle of Man government and its Chief Minister have been shown to be inept and marginalised following comments from the United Kingdom Prime Minister and his Chancellor Alistair Darling over the past few weeks.
Population is older and lonelier
People living in Devon and Cornwall are generally older and lonelier than elsewhere in the UK, a BBC survey finds.
Grey majority rules in Cornwall
Cornwall has the highest proportion of retirement age residents in the UK, according to a BBC survey.
