Three things that need to change in politics in this next parliament

There's a lot said in a political campaign and certainly I've written and spoke my fair share. On ideas and policies that matter to me. But my ability to pick out a bad policy and build an argument about it is not a reason to elect me. If that logic ran true it'd be Owen Jones fending off coalition advances, but that's not true.

Electing an MP is about electing someone for their ideals, policies and principles but also electing an individual to represent them both in terms of policy and in terms of locality. I'd happily be an MP at the heart of the debate, trying to hold reason, sending constant missives to the press on how I'm right and everyone else is wrong.  But that's not enough, being a talker and thinker is great but we also need a doer and someone with an eye not just for high politics but an eye to the grass roots. 

I've tried to be this way with my blog, I often write and campaign about lofty ideals, devolution, privatisation, austerity and so on. In between those times I've  campaigned on specific issues. Against the pasty tax and Devonwall. For Superfast Broadband in Penzance town centre. For government investment and attention in Wave Hub, among others. I don't pretend for a minute that it was me alone that shifted these issues. I do feel however I can take credit for inspiring debate and getting the situation into the media and further up the political agenda.

I guess my personal plea to you is this, I feel I can have an impact, I feel that I already do. I've had this impact as a blogger, a tweeter and more recently as a town councillor. If I have a bigger mandate from thursday's vote, I will have more influence and more people will take note of me. More importantly than all of that pay more attention to Cornwall and the issues MK has raised time and again in this election, the failures of centralisation, our poorly performing economy, our low wages and Cornwall's affordable housing need. The opportunities of rethinking politics, having the chance to set our own, new, priorities in Cornwall, the chance that by doing things differently Cornwall can be a better place to live, work and play.

I've raised these three truths at this election a number of times, 1. we don't get fair funding for our public services in Cornwall, 2. the St Ives constituency has the lowest wages in Cornwall, 3. Cornwall is one of the poorest parts of Western Europe. Tory, Lib Dem and Labour have had a chance to sort these out and they haven't. I think the time has come to change that, we must change that. The more of a vote I and Mebyon Kernow get on thursday, the more of a say, MK can have in getting the focus of political minds to address Cornwall's fundamental problems head on and unlock the brighter future that we all know is possible. 

The new Devonwall (Bude and Bideford) constituency

The Boundary Commission intial proposals for new constituencies has been leaked by Tory blogger supremo Guido Fawkes, they of course will reignite the debate about the new Devonwall constituency proposed by the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat government. The axe will fall in the north, crossing Cornwall's millennia plus old frontier over the small land crossing. The new constituency will be called Bideford and Bude and incorporate everywhere from Tintagel and Camelford east and north incorporating Bude and Launceston and up across out of Cornwall to include Bideford. By the numbers the new seat will include 35,272 Cornish voters and 39,413 Devonian, again the balance is against the Cornish truly DEVONwall.

The total number of registered voters in Cornwall and Scilly (not including of course those not on the electoral register and those that shouldn't be i.e. second home owners) is 458,278. By the Coalition's "mathematics only" considerations the desired number of electors in each constituency must be between  72,810 and 80,473, so even if Cornwall had 5 MPs representing 80,743 we would have 16,500 voters left over. To have 5 Cornish only MPs would require seats of 83,733. But no we couldn't have Cornish constituencies with an extra 3,300 voters, quite why who knows? All attempts to gain special consideration for our ancient Celtic nation and it's border were flatly refused by the government and at no point did Clegg or Cameron seem to take the issue seriously.

Realistically the Boundary Commission want constructive criticisms during their consultations, they want alternatives but within the constraints of Devonwall. The Cornish border has been voted into oblivion and only the Coalition government can stop that now by voting against the government when the bill returns to parliament. If you are interested in going to the consultation in Truro (frustratingly the only Cornish venue) it's on the 10th and 11th of November at the Alverton Manor Hotel on Tregolls Road link.

I don't have a lot more to say on the subject more than I have done already:
Undemocratic, disengaging, insulting, stupid, and unsympathetic..
also see Dick Cole's blog on the subject:
Bad news coalition plans for Devonwall

A message from Keep Cornwall Whole

Last night, whilst I was burning the midnight oil pleading with my readers to write and kick up a fuss about Devonwall (Devonwall let's keep up the pressure) I receieved an email from the Keep Cornwall Whole team convener Adam Killeya, which was along the same lines of what I was saying. I did however neglect to mention about writing to the Lords where the bill is at the moment passing through. So I have copied and pasted below the message ( apologies if you're already on their mailing list and have already read this.) To contact Keep Cornwall Whole their email address is info@keepcornwallwhole.org and there is lots more information on their website http://keepcornwallwhole.org/

Dear All
 
A happy new year from Keep Cornwall Whole!
 
In case you’re wondering why you haven’t heard much from us 
recently, it’s because there hasn’t been so much to tell: the 
bill is currently in the House of Lords being considered line 
by line (sometimes words by word!). Robin Teverson, who is very 
kindly leading the efforts in the Lords, reports that it is 
difficult to predict when the ‘Cornish’ part of the bill will be 
reached, but that the going is currently slow and there are a number 
of other things to be discussed first.
 
However you can still help. Before Christmas Jane Howells organised 
the printing of over 5000 Keep Cornwall Whole campaign postcards: 
many of these have been distributed around Cornwall but she still 
has over 1000 left. The idea is that everyone - individuals, councils 
and organisations – writes a brief message on the back and posts 
them to key figures connected with the bill:
 
Lord Strathclyde
Leader of the House of Lords
 
Lord McNally
Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
 
Lord Wallace
Attorney General for Scotland
 
 
all
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0AA
 
And 
Rt. Hon David Cameron MP
Prime Minister
 
Rt. Hon Nick Clegg MP
Deputy Prime Minister
 
both
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
 
You can get postcards from Jane. 
We can post a few at a time or if you need more than a few we will 
try to arrange to get them to you somehow
 
The Lords has passed one amendment to the bill already – in 
connection with the referendum date – so there is clearly a chance 
of further amendment. The bill will now have to go back to the 
MPs for further consideration, so let’s keep up the pressure to send 
it back with a Cornish amendment too!
 
Andrew George also secured a debate on the Bill in the House of Commons
which took place yesterday, and he writes about this here: 
http://tinyurl.com/4kw86h9 
 
Yours,
 
Adam
 
Convenor, Keep Cornwall Whole
 
http://twitter.com/Cornwall_Whole

Lords can be contacted through the http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ as an email but I believe they are not obliged to hold email accounts and in my experience contacting them this way they do not reply. Quite befittingly they needed to be contacted in the old fashioned way.

Devonwall: Let's keep up the pressure.

The campaign to Keep Cornwall Whole has been quiet of late.  The lack of meaningful debate about Devonwall and the significance of the Tamar border during the Commons vote was a snub to campaigners and many people in Cornwall and Devon. The defeat of the amendment also hit hard, no doubt many Conservative and Liberal Democrat party members and voters started to question the utility of having MPs at the 'heart of government' when the Coaliton MPs found themselves so at odds with their own parties policies.

There was however a meeting between Andrew George and Mark Harper (Parliamentary under secretary for Constitutional and Political Reform) about Devonwall as reported on the This is Cornwall website, Harper is pictured below.

As with previous conversations with Cameron and Clegg, the government representative duly smiled, nodded, listened and then proclaimed their previously held positon that Devonwall is no problem to them. Whether it's Cameron, Clegg or Harper they do not see the big deal about Keep Cornwall Whole, for them the Tamar is just a river that holds no significance. The significance of brushing aside a thousand years of Cornish history with a stroke of the pen is lost on them.

The challenge facing people who want to Keep Cornwall Whole is to pile on the pressure to these people, to make them understand. There is a need to escalate the lobbying of representatives, after all we elect these people, they shouldn't tell us what we want, this is a democracy what we want should be paramount. Perhaps some of these people need reminding that we can vote for them and we can choose not to. If the only part of democracy they recognise is elections, then we should remind them at the ballot boxes and refuse to vote for their parties.

To help please write to your representatives, (MPs and councillors) e-mail them via this website: They Work for You
Send a message to the Prime Minister to via the Number Ten site.
Also:
Visit the website of the campaign http://keepcornwallwhole.org/ and their email address is info@keepcornwallwhole.org
Join the facebook page: Keep Cornwall Whole on Facebook
As well it is on 'Causes' on Facebook: Stop the Cornish Border Changes
Follow the campaign on twitter: http://twitter.com/Cornwall_Whole
And generally spread the word.

If you are new to my blog, most of my blogs have been about this subject and I argue against Devonwall on a number of levels and I haven't repeated the arguments I have already made but here's some of them:

Undemocratic, Disengaging, Insulting, Stupid and Unsympathetic Five Reasons Why Devonwall is such a Bad Idea

What Price Electoral Reform?

Saving Money? Increasing the Number of Lords and Constitutional Reform


Thanks for reading.