Pasty Munching ingrates and the shock as Cornwall features in a newspaper in something other than a lifestyle piece!

Thought I'd write something about Jeremy Clarkson's column/ diatribe on Scottish independence today....

The feeling's mutual, Jeremy Clarkson: pic.twitter.com/JuQiA4GLOi
— RealCornishPubs (@RealCornishPubs) September 14, 2014

Quite!

It is a shock that Cornwall is not featured in the context of our great restaurants, food, landscape or coast or the opportunities for second homes. For a change Cornwall is talked about not as an abstract entity but a recognition that there are people in Cornwall and that there are politics here. Perhaps now pundits like Clarkson have noticed, the media might peer out past the M25 once in a while.

I don't take offence from Jeremy Clarkson, he can say what he likes, like so many comedians and pundits these days upsetting people is it's own genre. I have some sympathy with it I have a dark sense of humour and can chuckle at myself and not take it too seriously. Besides which I'm as much a 'pasty munching ingrate' as Jeremy Clarkson is a 'journalist'!

There is an interesting word he uses though ingrate, I've seen it a few times in reference to Cornwall as the debate on the future of the UK and the indyref heats up. So why exactly are we ingrates? what exactly does Cornwall have to be ungrateful for? Is it perhaps the second homes destroying our communities? Or our poor economic situation? Or is it the lack of opportunities that drive young people away in search of work? I accept there are things we might be grateful for, I'm not saying there is absolutely no benefit of the current situation. But why should we be grateful? Why exactly should we show gratitude and thankfulness?

I was brought up with manners and if I want something I say please and if I'm given something I say thank you. But this is a United Kingdom We're All In It Together, Better Together. The rhetoric constantly points to partnership of equal relations. But if this truly was the case why is there still an opinion that we are being gifted things? Gratitude in a partnership should be a two way street. Gratefulness implies not taking things for granted the UK would be a better place if it was realised that the Celts are not recipients of  English largesse...

The indyref and the time Scotland dared to dream

The Scottish Independence referendum, although like many politically attuned people I've thought about little else recently. It's hard for the gravity of the situation to truly sink in. We can see from the scramble of politicians to Scotland and their frenzied activity to convince the Scottish people that the UK can change, that I'm certainly not the only one!

Events in Scotland, will send an earthquake originating in Scotland but with it's epicentre in Westminster and through UK politics (or perhaps rUK). In the event of either a yes or a no vote there will be chaos. The status quo will die this week, all of the assumptions about central government knowing best and blind faith in their judgement will end.

Quite what all of this will mean is yet to be seen, will the neo-liberal view of economics remain intact? or to put it another way will the market and big business remain so powerful in politics? Will austerity remain the basis for all economic thought? Will we see a resurgence in front-line public services? We might see the nature of the state being challenged? How the UK is governed being rethought? Could Mebyon Kernow's long held goal of a Cornish Assembly come into being? The whole of politics itself could be questioned from the House of Lords down to parish councils. What is the role of the monarchy? The UK's place in the world might be reconsidered. Whether the UK retains nuclear weapons and even remains at the top table of the United Nations Security Council will be questioned.

All of these things are mights and maybes, not because the people of Scotland will vote yes or no. But because the whole process of having a vote on the future of Scotland, calls into question the fundamentals of the UK. If the UK was the strong powerful, 'great power' it once was none of this would be possible. Nevertheless these matters are mights and maybes because there are powerful voices in the established order and throughout the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties that would defend the old order bitterly and would try to curtail even a serious debate on these subjects.

I think the permanent removal of the fundamentals of the UK as a debating point is an unteneable position for two reasons. Firstly as the whole Scottish vote, the whole process of the debate and referendum in Scotland has put them on the agenda. Secondly and this relates to the title of this blog 'The indyref and the time Scotland dared to dream' and dream it certainly has, with enough, imagination, energy and debate for scores of countries let alone one. I think the whole of the UK needs to have a robust debate about the fundamentals, rather than struggle to stuff the cat back in the bag, if that's even possible.

The amount of debate in Scotland is truly inspirational and puts to shame the normal debates around general elections. It shows when the media and public debates focussing not on the same old parties talking from London on the same old subjects, but widens this out the debate becomes much more varied, interesting and overall engaging.

I admire Scotland, I always have, but that admiration has grown in the last year. They have dared to dream and I wonder if that capacity to dream and to question the underlying principles of the UK can be constrained within the UK in the event of a no vote. Politicians often talk about listening to people and engaging the public in debates, these people and indeed all of us would do well to look north. A casual disinterest in politics and low turnouts in election is not a certainty. People can be engaged on a huge scale.

Whatever happens on thursday, Scotland is in a better place for the process and is the only place at the moment in the UK that can call itself a democracy in any meaningful sense. Whatever you decide Scotland, good luck and keep dreaming of a better world.

Alex Salmond underestimates the effectiveness of the YES campaign

The biggest political story of the year is no doubt the Scottish Independence referendum. It truly is an inspiring time, UK politics tends to be a bit stuffy endless scraps over the center ground by a cosy political consensus masquerading as political rivalry. Real change is unusual in UK politics so anything as vaguely unique and inspiring as the debate on Scotland's future is most welcome.

That said I've been on the fence on the issue, I did an interview with a couple of journalists (Jamie McConkey and Victoria Scholar) up in Paul the other week. There by the headstone of Dolly Pentreath I was asked various questions about Cornish identity, Mebyon Kernow, the campaign for a Cornish assembly and ultimately how this impacts and is impacted upon by events in Scottish polling stations in september. I was directly asked what I thought of the Scottish vote and whether I supported the yes campaign. I was quite hesitant in my answer, at the time I was unsure and gave an answer along the lines of "it's up to the people of Scotland to decide" and did pour scorn on the terrible Better Together campaign. But now I've changed my mind and I am a yes supporter (although it's still up to Scotland).

I still have doubts, not to whether Scotland will succeed or build a better society as an independent country. But to what a yes vote, or indeed a no vote, means for the Rest of the UK and particularly here in Cornwall. Will a rump UK be more open to the idea of Cornish devolution? or will the opposite occour and devolution be seen merely a stepping stone to independence and fought bitterly? What will public opinion and the political classes make of the Scottish decision, will there be a tide of defensive English patriotism manifested in reinvigorated centralism?

My fears for the RUK aside Alex Salmond convinced me a yes vote is the right thing. I sat and watched his conference speech the other day, after enduring two typically right wing Farage v Clegg debates, it was a welcome and refreshing change. No blaming migrants for all societies ills nor an undue focus on what costs how much, nor whose jobs rely upon what. It was a refreshing look at what the future could be, what kind of future people would like to see. How to make life fairer for people how to get women a fair deal in the workplace, how to drive up the minimum wage. A welcome speech not of nationalism or patriotic fervour but one of hope, optimism and daring to dream of a better society.

Watch that speech here:



So why my title, how has Alex Salmond underestimated the YES campaign? Well I think he fails to grasp that when one side loses the other side wins it. As much as Better Together  is scare mongering and generally negative about the future. Or as the First Minister aptly put it in the speech:

"the most miserable, negative, depressing 

and thoroughly boring campaign in modern political history."

This is true but it's also about the hope and promise of the yes campaign. The political system in the UK is broken there is no doubt. The majority feel disenfranchised and don't turn up on polling day. Governments of all the big three parties have pursued policies in face of public opposition. The capital continues to grow and attract the most investment yet elsewhere enjoys enjoys no such privilege. They have presided over a deplorable MP's and Lord's expenses system. Billions spent on Trident despite austerity. Public services are sold off to privatisation. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow and has done for a long time. Whilst the minimum wage barely rises and we've seen recently nurses have no or little pay rise. At the same time as MP's are looking forward to a 11% pay rise. The list does go on and I don't mean to do down Britain, there are some great things, there are some great people but the top of the hierarchy, the establishment, among the politicians there is a real stink. It is little wonder that the yes campaign can claim to be better, to be more uplifting and optimistic, to increasingly win over voters.

It is little wonder the positive case for the union has been so had to make. That the no campaign relies upon senior politicians rather than a grass roots campaign. It's a really hard argument to make a positive case for the Westminster political system and it is little wonder yes is doing so well and even with the might of unrivaled media attention the no campaign flounders.

I sincerely wish the people of Scotland well in their decision. If I lived there, and after months of careful consideration, I would vote yes without a shadow of a doubt. It is my hope that if Scotland does vote yes that the Westminster bubble is well and truly popped and that the political establishment take a long hard look at themselves. I  Hope they borrow some of the optimism and foresight north of the border and think how the RUK might be better and how this broken political system can be fixed, for all our sakes.