Beach Ices at Praa Sands
Ice meeting the sand at the base of the low cliff behind Praa Sands Beach, West Cornwall. 6th January 2009....
Icicles at Trewellard Bottoms
Water seeping through a wall is turned to icicles, ate Trewellard Bottoms, where Geevor Mine meets the sea....
Winter Sunset at Levant
A late afternoon scene, at Levant Mine, West Cornwall. 7th January 2009....
Winter at Levant
The old electricity generator building, at Levant Mine, West Cornwall, during the recent cold snap. 7th Jnauary 2009....
I think the point about MK's having less money than others is fair.
However, in parliamentary elections every candidate has a leaflet delivered to every elector by the postman; the leaflets are post free and delivered free. Therefore presumably MK’s case in 2001 was and in 2005 will be seen by every elector in the seats it contests.
I see 5 May as a referendum on MK nationalism and we shall see then how many people in Cornwall choose it.
In local elections I do not think MK does well either. The MK official website lists its councillors.
Now I think there are 246 district councillors in Cornwall in total and the site lists six of them as MK. I don’t know how many town/parish councillors there are in Cornwall but as there are more than 200 such councils I suppose 1500 is a reasonable guess. MK has eighteen of them according to the party site.
However, you look at it, the vast majority of people in Cornwall just don’t support this party.
abednego makes a fair point that all MK members should be aware of, face the reality of the situation.
There is Little support in real terms for MK and this is due to a number of reasons.
MK fail to get there message across (a highly attractive message in reality) and escape the loony minority tag or xenophobic nationalist tag.
The other parties as opposed to addressing the issues raised by MK will often ignore them or play on the two incorrect tags mentioned above using their huge budgets to do so, but what do you expect from politician, honour and fair play?
The public in general has a bad impression of nationalism and a misunderstanding of the different types of nationalism, in fact i would say the public is pretty poor on most political subjects (sorry gen pub but its true).
The Cornish seem to like denying themselves good things, we have a victim mentality, we seem to like getting a slap and don't expect anything to ever change. We have a 'yes master' attitude, happy to give our power away so we cant be held responsible for things when they go wrong.
There are also a lot of people living in Cornwall (the grey vote) who have a vested interest in making sure nothing changes, who truly are xenophobic (to Europe for example) and who like to see young Cornish folk working in bars or at the yacht club.
To Cornish Nationalists don't be happy with your slow progress and slight increases over the years, take it in, see the size of the job ahead and get to work!
Wow. Look back at my posting of 7 April where I listed some of the things that Labour has done for people in Cornwall. Pensions, national minimum wage, more employment, low interest and mortgage rates, Sure Start, etc.
Now one can make several responses to this list of deeds such as:
1/ One can say, yes, that’s true, that’s how Labour has helped people in Cornwall and I shall/but I shall not vote for them.
2/ Or, they have not done enough. The minimum wage should be higher, etc.
3/ Or, they have done too much. People should stand on their own feet and face the bracing winds of lightly fettered capitalism, etc.
4/ Or, they should spend much/slightly less on hospitals and a "widows and orphans" program and more on Cornish language classes and Cornish culture, etc.
But what is dead wrong is to say that in their program Labour shows no interest in Cornwall.
Unless, of course, “showing an interest in Cornwall� and “helping people in Cornwall in their everyday lives� are different. Ah…
Yes, I will (I'll even forgive abednego for wishing a happy St Piran's Day in Old Saxon ). Several of the national changes that Labour made help Cornwall in a disproportionate way eg. the Minimum Wage with such a lot of the population involved in the service/tourism industries. Labour certainly have not neglected Cornwall. In the mid-1960s it was like a sea change when they came to power. I was at school then and it was transformed with more resources.
They are a national Government/party and as such should not treat Cornwall any differently than anywhere else in the UK. Their policies have benefitted the less well off. It is my experience that they have treated Cornwall better than other governments.
On a cultural/heritage front, that is more up to us. Our priority is low: more people live in Leeds, for example. However, there has been more progress in the last few years than ever before. For example, on the flag issue recently, when the flag minister heard that a lot of people were upset he said don't worry about it and advised councils to take no action. As a London MP I would not expect him to know about the problem here until it was brought to his attention
Highly attractive, really? Last time I looked their policies looked like a Labour manifesto from the 70's. NOT what I would call attractive, as it resulted in the country being virtually bankrupt.
More detail please fancyabrew, give us a few of the MK policy statements that you are writing about and while you are at it who will you be supporting?
“We have a positive alternative built on four important cornerstones. Our alternative is Cornish, green, left-of-centre and decentralist�
“We are opposed to the privatisation of our community assets to wealthy private investors. We believe that energy, water, rail and vital communications should be publicly owned and publicly accountable.�
Also the whole section on public services on their website for starters, and Taxation. Oh and the section on Tolerance, is a classic, very tolerant yet against hunting, hmmmm not very tolerant then. Another good one is their high and mighty section on World Affairs, especially the bit on military spending. Don’t know if you have noticed (doubt it as SE Cornwall very rarely gets a mention) but a lot of people in SE Cornwall work in various sections of the military and associated areas.
As for who I vote for, I'm not decided, but it won't be MK, mind you I'm in good company as nor will 99.9% of voters in Cornwall!
I agree Abdenego, they have done good things for the people of the UK (not just Cornwall).
However when it comes to justice for national minorities they are failing the Cornish just like the conservatives did.
For me, and i grew up in Cornwall understanding fully its economic depression, there are some things just as important if not more so than material concerns, like for example cultural identity and language. Things that give you pride in who you are and where you come from, pride that can carry you through times when money is tight.
Yes we can run the UK with our calculators but i fear that method will always conflict with the irrational, romantic and so much more interesting human world.
As to this point you keep making, all i can say is you are full of it! You come across more as a Labour spin doctor trying to fool the public into thinking that this is the only choice there is, hospitals or Culture.
Its funny that does not seem to be an issue for you or others when English cultural project are on the table, or wars, or millenium domes?
Abdenego, i really hope the general readership of this message board is not as stupid as this regurgitated and fallacious opinion would require.
As has been said before, give Cornish cultural projects just a tiny slice of the money that is spent in London (or the rest of England) on culture and heritage projects, also spend less money on arms and wars and then spend the savings on hospitals and orphans.
There you go bird, using your simplistic reasoning i have solved the problem, that is unless you don't think Cornish cultural programs should take money from English equivalents because they just don't deserve it?
Was that in the labour manifesto in the 70s, wow; you live and learn.
have you used the trains recently?
If it means they make no friends in SE Cornwall because they stick to their principles and reduce spending on arms and wars then so be it and good on them.
Yep use the train to commute to work nearly everyday, and have been doing since 1990. And funny enough the trains were shocking when under public ownership, as was the water (one reason why are bills are so high and have been for years, the old phrase was there’s no votes in sewerage, so governments invested nothing!) as was BT. Public ownership has failed, I couldn’t give a toss who runs services so long as there as good as they can be given the money spent on them.
So I suppose you'd close down Imerys as well then? big polluter, that’ll add to the job losses of those in the defence industry. Still plenty of old peoples homes for the jobseekers to go and work in.
But anyway as i asked before, was that in the Labour manifesto, because that is what it appears you are saying?
Well yes i would reduce spending on arms and the milltary ( or try to spend more thoughtfully ). The money saved could then be spent reinvesting in the Cornish economy creating jobs and infrastructure.
Like i said if that makes no friends in the arms industry and military then so be it!
I’m just comparing the failed labour policies of the 70’s, with the similar, public ownership, high taxation nonsense of MK’s policies in 2005
Rise in county's road death toll
The number of people who have died on Cornwall's roads rises in the last year to 35, police say.
Film con man ordered to pay £100K
The man who swindled almost £2m in a film studio scam is ordered to forfeit £100,000 by a judge.
Triplets survive against the odds
A woman from Cornwall who gave birth to triplets 14 weeks early describes their survival as a "miracle".
Call for inquiry into fire centre
Fire chiefs demand a public inquiry into the delayed opening of the regional fire control centre.
Prison sentence for benefit cheat
A man who admitted swindling more than £51,000 in benefits over a six-year period is jailed for 18 months.
Divers face trial over shipwreck
Three Cornish divers accused of plundering a shipwreck off the coast of Spain are to be tried in a Spanish court.
‘NO’ TO NUCLEAR WASTE IN CORNWALL - MPs
Proposals to bring nuclear waste to Cornwall have been described as ‘absurd and irresponsible’ by Cornish MPs.
Route Partnership Plan for Penzance unnecessary
Their plan having been rejected by the public in the final exhibition in Septmber with 90% against the Route Partnership have decided to try again in mid January after a mailout and poster campaign.The Chamber of Commerce has been at the forefront of this campaign.
