A rebuttal of Cornwall Labour's lies and conjecture about a Cornish Assembly and Mebyon Kernow

Today there was a frankly bizarre rebuttal of the idea of a Cornish Assembly from Candy Atherton of the Cornwall Labour party. Bizarre not only because we disagree on the principles of the matter, but on the arguments used. I call on the Labour party to actually talk to people, recognise that there is a desire for more powers to come to Cornwall and not rely on lies, dubious facts and made up stories. The latter I will now explain.


The original article is here: Labour positions itself against Cornish Assembly in face of nationalist call. In it the argument, echoes the Tory line that people do not want extra bureaucrats and politicians. As I've written before, we are already governed at the moment, there are politicians and bureaucrats that deal with the business of administering Cornwall. They are in places like Bristol and London, the Tory/ Labour position is that they stay there. Mebyon Kernow's position is that these jobs, this decision making is brought to Cornwall.

Candy explains in that WMN article:

“The last thing the electorate want is more politicians. I challenge you to knock on doors in a wet October and find more than one in 100."

Interestingly this was done ten years ago, over a while year in wind, rain and sun, doors were knocked and people in town centres were asked. 50,000, 10% of the Cornish electorate signed declarations calling for a Cornish Assembly. The then Prime Minister Tony Blair dismissed these. A fact I'm sure Candy is aware of, as she was at that time a Member of Parliament for Falmouth and Camborne and steadfastly kept to Labour policy of devolving power to Exeter and Plymouth.

I digress, Mebyon Kernow has again taken up this challenge, personally I was with other members of Mebyon Kernow on Truro's Lemon Quay on a cold and windy day in January and over 200 people signed the new declaration that day. I was also at Trevithick Day again not October but soaking wet nonetheless and nearly 300 signatures were added. Now I can't tell you how many people on a wet October day would say yes to Cornwall having more say over our own affairs, I can't because I have not done it. But somehow I strongly suspect neither has anyone in the Labour party in Cornwall. But what I can tell you is that in the wind of january and the wet of april, it was much much higher than 1 in 10 let alone 1 in 100 that spoke to us and afterwards signed the petition. As proof there are over 500 signatures from those two days alone, testifying to that fact. Its a sad day when the only argument against something is based on something blatantly no one has tried. Perhaps we will have a wet october and Labour can try out Candy's theory?

Candy also goes on to say that:

"Mebyon Kernow are not exactly top of the pops. Mebyon Kernow’s vote has halved.”

Now this one is perplexing, firstly supporting a policy needn't mean supporting a party. The Cornish Assembly petition I mentioned above was written by MK and promoted by MK activists, yet MK has never received 50,000 votes even across the whole of Cornwall. 

Secondly, unless there's been an election I'm not aware of in which MK did spectacularly badly, this is not even factually correct. MK results in the 2009 Cornwall Council election: 3 candidates elected with a total of 4.3% of the total vote in Cornwall. In the 2013 Cornwall Council elections: 4 candidates elected with 4.8% of the vote. Unless I'm missing something 4 councillors is more than 3 and 4.8% is more than 4.3%. MK's general election record shows a similar trend more votes and a bigger percentage consistently each election. 

There have been 2 Cornwall Council by elections with MK candidates. Although Stephen Richardson's vote share went down by 6.6% from 25.2% to 18.6%, he rose from third to second. In Mabe Perranarwothal and St Gluvias, Karen Sumser- Lupson gained 4.7% of the vote, in a division we had not stood in before. Not a net gain for us over all but still by any ones maths our vote did not halve. It is clear "Mebyon Kernow's vote has halved" is a figment of Labour's imagination.

This is symptomatic of the whole Labour approach to devolution in Cornwall and the idea of a Cornish assembly. There is no considered thought, let alone research/ statistics or door knocking to base their views. It is a knee jerk reaction and one based on a very simplistic view of politics. Sadly (and I thought we could expect more from Cornwall Labour) conjecture intermingles with damn right lies about Mebyon Kernow- the Party for Cornwall. 

I strongly believe that devolution is a very real possibility for Cornwall at the moment and politicians need to give all of the options considered thought. I'm not saying everyone ought to agree that a Cornish Assembly is the way forward but it is a realistic proposal and needs serious consideration. I challenge naysayers like the Labour party to look at what Mebyon Kernow is proposing and whatever the Lib Dems or anyone else come forward with. Come up with criticism that shows you understand the issues, the proposals and the pros and cons, not just glib remarks. Better still try knocking some doors or talking to people in the street. 13 years ago a huge part of Cornwall's population were denied a referendum on a Cornish Assembly. It would be a mistake for Labour to continue the legacy of denying the people a choice out of hand.

On a side note how depressing is it that Miliband, Brown and Darling are putting a lot of thought and effort into offering a whole raft of powers to Scotland, yet here a fraction of those powers isn't even worth Labour making a coherent and factual argument.