Cynical Devonwall foiled by cynical politics

The news is awash with news that the Liberal Democrats have pulled out their support for -the Tory gerrymandering- boundary changes and thus Devonwall. Which is great news obviously, but I can't help but feel that celebrating is not the right thing. After all the plans have not been defeated because there was little appetite for them, they've not been defeated because the Tamar should be a sacrosanct border or that in a democracy with a rising population the number of representatives should go up not down. But no not for any of these good reasons and indeed others the length and breadth of the UK but because the Conservatives have reneged on their coalition promise to reform the House of Lords and Clegg has in turn reneged on his promise to support boundary changes.

So all the arguing for the boundary changes by the Liberal Democrat party, voting for it in the Commons etc has now been cast aside. The question that I ask, speaks to the heart of Westminster democracy, why oh why can parties and MPs vote and argue for laws that they do not agree with? Surely life itself and especially parliamentary life is far too short to waste time on matters they do not agree with? If there is something that politicians should look at, if there is some reform that the UK electoral system needs, surely it is to rectify this problem? There are many qualities people seek in political parties and MPs but I doubt this moral flexibility in voting is one of them.

For more info on the Devonwall u turn see Dick Cole's blog here.

The budget and how Westminster politics fails Cornwall

I have been eagerly awaiting some good news for Cornwall to emerge from Osborne's budget but alas nothing but misery for us. The headlines from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat plan are a tax break for the richest in society, firstly the so called '50p tax rate' has been lowered so those earning over £150,000 will pay less tax and corporation tax has been lowered 2%. In effect this means billions will be lost in revenue to the Treasury from some of the richest in society not just millionaires but huge companies. Certainly the 2% tax cut for corporations is great news for the likes of Tesco and Morrison's, saving them an astronomical amount of money. The rise in the personal allowance must be welcomed and is the only good thing from the budget, but I doubt the extra £630 will negate the regressive VAT rate of 20%. Cutting the VAT rate back to 17.5% or even lower would have been a much fairer tax cut putting money back into the pockets of not only corporations and millionaires and billionaires but ordinary people too. It would also have reduced the (overly taxed) price of fuel which really inhibits growth in Cornwall due to the dispersed nature of our population and due to our distance from the centralised supply chain.

In terms of specifically effecting Cornwall, pasty tax has raised the most attention and blood pressure, (see my blog about that here). This will not only hit the pockets of ordinary workers out for dinner but also scores of small and medium size businesses who will inevitably see a drop in profit with the inevitable price hike. The introduction of linking civil service pay with localised pay conditions, in plain English depressing wages in places like Cornwall, will also take millions out of the Cornish economy. It is measures like this that are paying for taxes to be lowered for the richest people and companies in the UK.

During the budget speech Osborne announced plans to invest in the infrastructure of the rail network in the North of England, I am no expert in this part of the world and I am sure it is great news for them. But I couldn't help but feel that Cornwall had been let down again, previously the government announced plans to invest billions in High Speed 2, cutting rail journeys to and from London. This government is by no means adverse to investing in public transport but seemingly not in Cornwall, where services have being steadily reduced, to stations like Hayle for example. Even the Conservative-Independent Cornwall Council are more than aware that the government (of any colour) cares little for rail here and instead of trying to influence Westminster and Whitehall are instead seeking control of rail (see here).

This example of rail is exactly why the party politics and politicking of Westminster is failing Cornwall. Osborne was clear that in announcing the investment in the North of England he was feeding in to the North/South, Labour/ Conservative dynamic of English politics. That is to say that the Conservatives are seen as a party of the south (more like south east) and Labour the party of the north. This announcement of rail investment in the North of England was a counter point to the much bigger plans for another airport serving the south east. It was also a shot across the bows of Labour accusing the previous administration of neglecting to invest in that area.

This is how English politics plays out, the Conservatives accuse Labour of being inept and vice versa and they try to outdo each other when in government with support and investment in each others heartlands. This is why Cornwall is losing out not only because we are a periphery but because we play little part in the Labour-Tory battle (not now and not under the previous government). This government both yellow and blue wings is more than aware that their policies (pasty tax, regional pay, Devonwall, neglecting to invest in fishing and farming) are unpopular in Cornwall.  But they don't care, if this government is unpopular it's both parties that take a hit in the polls. Despite the best efforts of Mebyon Kernow among others no other party are a real threat to the coalition in terms of past voting patterns. They are complacent because they think that people will not desert them and vote for an alternative. They don't need to wheel out investment plans or shelve plans like Devonwall and the pasty tax because jointly the Conservative and Liberal parties have no fear of being unseated. No doubt come nearer to the next general election they'll both attempt to disown the very policies they voted for and blame the other party. For example this election poster in the recent Truro city by election:

The real need for Cornwall is to break out of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat domination of politics. It's with some inevitability that regular readers will find themselves at the part of my blog where I urge them to join and vote for Mebyon Kernow, but I think I have a point. Being dominated by two parties is not healthy for democracy and besides look where it has got us ....

Picture from This is Cornwall
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Lord-Lawson-appetite-pasty-tax/story-15678136-detail/story.html

The Cornish language film Tamara, a quick review

Image taken from http://www.cornwallfilmfestival.com/

Last year at the Cornwall Film Festival awards, Will Coleman's short Cornish language film Tamara won the Govyn Kernewek award. Thankfully it is available to watch online, which is highly commendable. For many of the films featured in the awards do not make it to the wide audiences online, which is a great shame as there is a wealth of talent in film making in Cornwall. Like many aspects of Cornish culture there is a unique view of the world and of Cornwall and the Cornish expressed very clearly and coherently, it could be said that there is an undercurrent of a sub-culture constantly simmering away in Kernow. Music has always been at the forefront of this and the influence of Cornish musicians is very evident in performances in Cornwall and further beyond. The names of people from Cornwall have carved their names into the history of music, Mick Fleetwood, Roger Taylor, Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert, the Fisherman's Friends, Sue Aston, James Morrison and Ruarri Joseph to name but a few. These people have innovated music, pushed boundaries helped create new genres and made a substantial contribution to that art form. It is therefore very encouraging to see Cornish filmakers given the opportunity to unleash their talents, to present a Cornish view on film as innovative and ambitious as their musical counterparts. We're still a long way from Cornish film makers becoming household names globally like their musical counterparts but still progress is being made and we must welcome the opportunity for Cornish people to showcase their talents in Cornwall.

Personally I am a big fan of Cornish films, one of my favourites over the last few years has been Will Coleman's excellent Daralla Jooan Chyannor (the story of John of Chyannor) which is a vivid and amusing telling of the ancient Cornish tale.

Will Coleman is a very gifted droll (story) teller and a very enthusiastic character so I was really looking forward to seeing Tamara in all it's glory and it certainly did not disappoint.

Tamara tells the tale of two Cornishmen obviously incensed by Cameron's slur of "it's the Tamar not the Amazon for Heaven's sake" keen to avenge this sleight and that of Devonwall itself, they set to work. Styling themselves as the Cornish Liberation Army they set to destroying the Tamar bridge, but life becomes more complicated and they realise their actions have consequences they never could have imagined. The film has a keen sense of humour and a keen sense of timing and suspense and in every way is very well made and professional (although I fear the special effects budget was all blown in one scene at the end!).

For me there's interesting commentary on Cornwall and Cornish politics and our language Kernewek. It exposes albeit in an exaggerated way some of the dilemmas and debates about politics and culture in Cornwall. Is direct action the answer? or is Tamara right when she proclaims: "No one has ever made the world a better place through hate and violence." Obviously in a less exaggerated way we might reframe these questions as: is confrontation and argument the right way forward? or is building consensus and agreement a better path? I think the answer is quite obvious it maybe boring and ordinary but I'd rather be like the heroine Tamara than the Laurel and Hardy-esque duo.

On the subject of the language it is interesting to note that the film frames the two nationalists as poor Cornish speakers whereas Tamara is a teacher and obviously fluent. Davey and Dawe seem to struggle with the language and use it simply to proclaim their political beliefs, in contrast Tamara uses the language to communicate and chat not to proclaim and make speeches. Certainly Tamara's use of the language is more admirable and honest than confused childlike sentences of the men that are mixed with political rhetoric.

Agree with me or not, I do hope you watch the film and feel free to leave comments below I'd love to know what other people think, maybe I read to much into it and it's simply a comedy, decide for yourself....


TAMARA from denzil monk on Vimeo.

senior Cornish Tory echoes MK policy to lobby for a Cornish police force

the Canadian Cornwall has it's own police force why not the Cornish Cornwall?

Very pleased to see that the Conservative cabinet member and councillor for Bodmin, Lance Kennedy echoing my call to devolve policing to Cornwall. It's always been the policy of Mebyon Kernow that all governmental institutions and bodies be devolved to Cornwall including the police force. The idea is certainly not that radical, at the moment Devon and Cornwall police force is the biggest in England and the smallest constabularies are smaller than Cornwall.

It is also very encouraging to see a councillor taking up the baton of fighting for a Cornish police force. On the 6th of September 2011 a majority of Cornwall councillors voted that:

1. The Council urgently meets with the Chief Constable and Chair of Devon and Cornwall Police Authority to assert:
   
   (i) equal partnership between Devon and Cornwall
   (ii) fair division of resource
   (iii) policing style relevant and effective for Cornwall
   (iv) equal representation in governance of police
2. The Council Send a strong cross party delegation to Home Secretary to assert stronger Cornish representation in governance, opposition to Devonwall, assessment of case for a Cornish Commissioner and police force, and the principle of democratic governance and accountability.

So far no one has championed this cause in an official capacity (that I know of). Certainly Lance's comments appear on the BBC Cornwall newsite (Councillor bids for Cornish police force) but don't feature on the news  section of Cornwall Council's website. It would seem safe to assume that this is not council policy that the administration at Cornwall Council have so far refused to lobby on this subject and are ignoring the will of the chamber to do so (not for the first time). I know Robertson and other senior Tories in Cornwall are keen not to upset their bosses in the party in Westminster but they should take up this cause and spend more time listening to the people of Cornwall and councillors. Doing what is best for Cornwall rather than what is the best for Tory policy in London.

Let's kick Devonwall into touch

There has been a lot of comment and condemnation recently about the Government's boundary 'reforms'. There are far too many articles and examples to be all listed here, but it's fair to say that people from a variety of backgrounds from throughout the UK are unhappy at the proposals. The proposals stand to disregard natural and administrative boundaries and leave constituents being represented alongside people who they share very little with. My perspective is that these changes are bad for so many reasons, prime among them is the fact that our Cornish border stands to be disregarded. I noticed today on the e petition site that there is a petition titled Protecting local community ties which argues that these changes should not simply be a question of numbers but that community identity and ties should take precedence. I agree with this wholeheartedly and I have no desire for English constituencies to be butchered any more than I do Cornish constituencies, please sign and share. Hopefully we can get at least the seven thousand plus people that have joined the Stop the Cornish Border Changes alone, to sign up and more.

Sign that petition here.
While you're there you might like to sign the petition to recognise Cornish nationality here. And one concerning the establishment of a Cornish assembly here.

Devon and Cornwall Police relocate their helicopter to Cornwall

Only joking it's nowhere near Cornwall, it's moving further away.

Last week in the news, was the story that the police force have relocated the force helicopter from thehere on the BBC Devon site. I must confess at the outset that I had no idea that D&C police even had a helicopter, until the Keep Cornwall Whole rally in Saltash last October (where it was buzzing overhead). The simple reason for this is that is based miles away from Penzance in Exeter. Even with such a new and fast machine the chances of it getting this far west in time to do anything useful are very slim.
Headquarters in Exeter to Exeter airport. The move will bring the police millions of pounds by freeing up the Middlemoor site (for development presumably) this in itself is good news, this is the sort of thing that should happen before sacking people and raiding people's pensions.

Map of the force area, note the helicopters location in Exeter

So I wondered why is the helicopter based in Exeter and funny enough this is answered on the police website:

Weather conditions are better in the Exeter area; it would be more difficult to fly from a location further west in the Force area.

The Air Operations Unit is next to the motorway, which is convenient considering that crime frequently enters and exits the Force area via the motorway.

There is a mutual aid scheme with Dorset and Avon & Somerset Constabularies; Air Operations in these forces cover one another in case of emergency. If the Force’s Air Operations Unit were based in Cornwall, for example, it would be too far west to assist these two forces.

If the helicopter base were in Plymouth, it would need to stop more frequently to re-fuel each time it flew east for a job and then back west to Plymouth. The helicopter’s endurance is limited to just two hours’ flying.

The helicopter has always been based in Exeter and it would be expensive for the Air Operations Unit to move location. Air Operations staff all live locally so it is a convenient location.

LINK

Notwithstanding a semi-tropical Exeter micro-climate I am unaware of, I doubt the validity of the argument about weather, the Cornish air ambulance is a familiar site throughout Cornwall and here in Penzance we are used to British International's frequent flights to Scilly in all but the most extreme weather. Not to mention the very frequent helicopter flights from Culdrose. All helicopters seldom affected by the weather save for storm conditions.

an EC-145 model, presumably Exeter type snow

The mutual aid scheme is interesting, no word whether the people in Dorset and Avon & Somerset pay for the service and I doubt we'd ever see one of their helicopters in Cornwall, due to distance.
As to the comment about Plymouth, I would use the same logic to argue in favour of a Cornish location or even Plymouth as a location. That is, as the base is in Exeter, it needs to return there more frequently when deployed to Cornwall and West Devon.

Here if you are interested in working it out fro yourself, is a link to a useful google maps based tool that works out distance 'as the crow flies', google maps distance calculator, from Penzance to Exeter International Airport is 89 nautical miles. Also if your interested here's the specification of the police's Eurocopter EC-145 an aircraft capable of a maximum speed of 133 knots. Without working out the maths fully and finding out the response time to get in the air, it is obvious that to reach anywhere in West Cornwall from base would take at least an hour, or if you prefer £1675 each way.

There are two points here, there seems little logic from a Cornish perspective to have the helicopter based in Exeter it's too far,  one it reduces operational effectiveness and two it increases costs. This is yet another example of the Devonwall/ centralisation process that takes jobs and services out of Cornwall. There seems to be some blinkered logic that shoving everything into Exeter is necessary and useful, this is not the case for this helicopter or anything else. As an alternative Newquay airport would be a much better solution for both Cornwall and Devon (59 nm to Exeter, 33 to Plymouth, 28 to Penzance) especially if Cornwall Council would rent facilities at cost. Ultimately though Cornwall would be much better served by our own police force, a Devon based force concentrates it's resources nearby, high time we did the same.

see also Andrew Wallis's blog on the way D&C police is funded in favour of Devon: Paying for the police

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.

Who voted to Keep Cornwall Whole? and who didn't?

I have been chewing the fat of the amendment that would have protected Cornwall's political integrity and I find some of it quite difficult to chew through, and some of it hard to swallow. There are some surprises senior Tories (D, Cameron and L, Fox) and Senior Labour MPs (Miliband (both) G, Brown) that didn't vote and a shortfall in Labour votes. Looking at the figures of who voted which way there are two things that occour, firstly the amendment could have mathematically been voted through and secondly that there are some surprises over who did vote who and didn't vote. To quickly illustrate the first point the amendment was defeated by 315 to 257, a government majority of 58 in simple terms this means that 80 Members of Parliaments did not bother to vote. Mathematically at least these 80 MPs could have forced through the bill that protected not only Cornwall's integrity but Anglesey, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and the Isle of Wight too. I know it is simplistic to guess the votes of absentee parliamentarians but bear with me while I illustrate my second point.

In terms of broad strokes, the Coaliton Government -give or take a few- voted against the amendment, whilst the opposition voted for it. Voting against the bill was every notable Liberal Democrat from Clegg, Cable, Alexander, Campbell et al through to the back benches. Voting for the bill Cornwall's Lib Dem trio, joined by Charles Kennedy and John Thurso and Adrian Sanders MP for Torbay (unlike his fellow Devonian Lib Dem Nick Harvey who voted against.)

Cornwall's 3 Tories voted for the amendment as did the Isle of Wight MP, but the picture across Conservative party is slightly different, David Cameron did not vote either way, whether in a way of an apology for the Amazon comment or on behalf of his Cornish born daughter we will never know. The much vaunted Shadow Minister for Cornwall Mark Prisk voted for Devonwall as did most senior Tories. Devon Tories; Morris, Parish, Stride, Cox, Colville and Wollaston all voted against the amendment.  However 2 Devon Tories did not vote either way (Swire and Streeter) the same was true of Liam Fox.

Moving on to Labour, no doubt the majority of votes came from this party -including Devon MPs Seabeck and Bradshaw- but the fact that Labour has 258 MPs, and MPs voting for the amendment totalled 243 here there is a shortfall. We've already named 10 from the coaliton and 11 from small parties that voted against and at least 6 who (see below) considering I may have missed a few coaliton MPs at least 44 Labour MPs did not vote either way. I do not have a full list but the party leader Ed Miliband, his brother David Miliband, ex PM Gordon Brown were amongst the Labour MPs who did not vote.

Moving on to the small parties the 3 Plaid Cymru, 5 of the SNPs 6,  2 of the  DUPs 6 and 1 of the SDLPs 3 all voted in favour. The MP for the Northern Ireland Alliance Party, an Independent and the Green MP all did not vote. In other words from the small parties none voted against the amendment, with 11 for and 12 abstaining. To round up some of the information, all Cornwall's MPs voted for the amendment, Devon's MP were divided 7 against, 3 for, 2 abstaining. I must apologise for throughout this blog I have not specified exact details of how Labour, Lib Dem and Tory voted, unfortunately Hansard does not list MPs by party on voting results and not myself being burdened with knowing which party 600 odd MPs are in, I can not be more specific.

Support for the amendment in the Coaliton was extremely thin on the ground, but to return to my first  point, could the oppositon have voted the amendment into the bill? I believe so, if all Labour members had voted (from the Leader down), small parties had been persuaded and Devon MPs brought alongside the Cornish 6 and their allies may well have won. That's as maybe I suppose, but there are some hard questions to be posed by the Cornish members of the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens over how they were not able to persuade their fellow party members to support this amendment.

Anyway perhaps as a fitting epitaph to the loss of the Tamar I leave you with the parliamentary exchange between Andrew George LD and Angus Macneil SNP:

 Mr MacNeil: The hon. Gentleman has mentioned history and culture, and there is of course the Gaelic proverb:

"S fhearr caraid sa chuirt na crun san sporran"-

it is better to have a friend in court-and, indeed, Parliament -than money in the purse. With that in mind, I say to my Celtic cousins from Cornwall that Karl Marx in one of his madder moments said that the fate of the Celtic races was to be ruled by the Nordic races. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the treatment of Cornwall could thus be construed as Marxist? Did he ever imagine that when this coalition Government set out their aims, they would end up with Marxism in Cornwall?

Andrew George: Let me quote someone else. It was Matthew Arnold who said that it was the desire of a centralised state

"to render its dominions... homogenous".

The quote is from Column 680 and the voting record deduced from column 696 which also details the defeated amendment, both from the same -November the second- Hansard entry. 

Saving money? the Lords and constitutional reform

As the Cornish border prepares to take on no more political significance to London than the Amazon, news about the creation of more peers in the Lords has me truly perplexed. The argument for the reduction in numbers of MPs is justified as saving money, part of the Governments obsession with cutting public spending. It is argued that 50 less MPs will save money and at the same time constituencies can be made roughly the same size in population. Which results in at least one cross Tamar constituency and communities everywhere in the UK being ignored for the sake of cold hard mathematics.

This reduction in MPs will save the public purse an estimated £12 million pounds a year. That's all well and good but in the same stroke the government is creating 300 new peers to the House of Lords, a cost that one peer estimates at £60 million pounds a year.  So it would seem that Cornwall stands to lose its border and democratic representation will be reduced throughout the UK, yet the unelected unaccountable Lords will be increased by 300. Which will either increase the House of Lords to over a thousand peers or prompt golden handshakes for retirees.

So, what kind of democracy is this that favour unpopular traditions like the Lords over popular traditional borders?
That favours electoral reform of the elected house whilst bolstering the unelected house?
That has more unelected representatives than elected?
Surely a fortune could be saved by trimming the Lords down to size leaving the Commons be and thus keeping Cornwall's border intact?

Undemocratic, disengaging, insulting, stupid and unsympathetic, five reasons why Devonwall is a bad idea

Undemocratic, disengaging, insulting,

stupid and unsympathetic,
five reasons why Devonwall is a bad idea

There are many reasons why a Devonwall constituency is a bad idea. It’s tempting to list 1074 for this is the number of years since the Cornish border was established (in 936AD) , this would certainly be possible. However for the sake of your sanity and mine the number of objections to Devonwall can be summed up in five reasons. I know there are many more and I haven’t included for example the historical and cultural significance of the Tamar, Cornwall’s constitutional position and the fact that the Cornish like the Welsh, Scottish and English deserve equal political respect under law. I feel these subjects have been ably covered by other writers on their blogs. Anyway my five are perhaps a little procedural and dry but here they are.

1. Firstly and most importantly, the decision to create a Parliamentary Cross- Tamar constituency is wholly undemocratic. The move is opposed by Cornwall’s six Members of Parliament (both the 3 Liberal Democrat and the 3 Conservative), Cornwall Council has voted unanimously against and in addition a large proportion of town and parish councils are opposed. Democratically elected officials from across the Duchy and from all of the political parties do not want a Cross-Tamar MP at the next parliament. There is no desire for a Devonwall constituency in Cornwall.

2. There has been no public consultation about this move, even as the bill is passing through parliament, the public have still not been told if the proposed Devonwall constituency will join West Devon to North Cornwall or Plymouth to South East Cornwall. Before the coalition government came to power all boundary changes were open to public consultation, not anymore. The public simply have no avenue of official interaction with the government over this matter, thus a public rally has been organised.

3. The plans for a Devonwall constituency are part of the plans for reducing the number of MPs which in turn is part of the reform of the electoral system (the AV referendum). So Cornwall stands to lose its political integrity and millennia old border as a footnote to another issue. However insulting this is, it also means that Liberal Democrat MPs in Cornwall will be whipped into voting for electoral reform and forsaking their own beliefs and those of their constituents. 

4. The most prescient practical reason for opposing the Cross-Tamar is the extra unnecessary work for both the MP and local authorities. Again before the Coalition came to power, great attempts were made to keep constituencies within administrative divisions, not anymore. Say for example if the constituency straddles Plymouth and South East Cornwall, the MP will have to liaise with Cornwall Council, Devon County Council and Plymouth City Council, as well as town and parish councils. This would lead to a lot of unnecessary work for both the MP and the Councils, making everyone’s job harder, much more inefficient and reduce the effectiveness of all involved.

5. Although there are historical, cultural and political arguments to be made for keeping ‘Cornwall Whole’ these have so far been ignored by Nick Clegg and the coaliton government.. This is a great shame for there have been special dispensations made to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on similar grounds. In the case of our Celtic cousins the strict new rules on constituency size have been waived in favour of common sense. So if there can be exceptions elsewhere in the Celtic nations, why not Celtic Cornwall?

I have listed below some links for those of you that might be interested in reading more/ getting involved:
Keep Cornwall Whole site, including details of the rallies on the 8th, 9th and 10th October.
This campaign is being considered by 38 degrees, please vote for it here.
The Cornish Republican's blog which provides an overview of the subject.