With a law-making Cornish Assembly in the news I wanted to do a brief
series of blog entries looking at some of the myths that the
'nay-sayers' would have us believe.
The first issue that I want to address is:
"Cornwall wouldn't be able to survive as an independent country"
Of course this is a completely misleading and nonsensical argument
against the Mebyon Kernow proposal for a law-making Cornish assembly.
The statement is utterly irrelevant to the argument in favour of a
Cornish Assembly and is typical of the scaremongering tactics that are
used by unionist politicians.
It is irrelevant because I can't think of a single serious and well
established organisation that is campaigning for Cornish independence
from the UK. Mebyon Kernow's campaign is for devolution of power - not
to become a stand alone nation state.
Our ethos is that decisions are best made at the lowest level possible - a principle known as subsidiarity.
We believe that there is a democratic mandate for genuine law making
powers to be devolved to the people of Cornwall. Fifty thousand people
have signed declarations that they believe that a Cornish assembly is
required to set the right democratic priorities for Cornwall - so we are
not alone!
Not only do we believe that there is a democratic mandate but we also
believe that an Assembly is actually the best way to begin to tackle the
distinct social and economic problems that we face here in Cornwall.
How can a remote government in Westminster understand the nuances of
Cornish culture and blend of economic factors that make up our society.
Let's be clear - Mebyon Kernow is not asking for SS Kernow to be cast
adrift from the fleet - we simply want to have a Cornish captain with
the power to run his/her ship to the best of their ability.
Cornwall doesn't need to be able to survive as an independent country -
but couldn't it do a whole lot better for its people if it were able to
look to itself to solve problems?
The Westminster unionist political parties (which have UKIP at the
forefront) want to maintain the status quo because it suits them all.
They all receive funding from big organisations and corporations who all
insist on a political pay back at some stage. The local representatives
of the London parties will be hoping to climb the political career
ladder and, just like the parties will need to answer to their corporate
financiers, so their members will have to toe the party line or face
the consequences. They will continue to scaremonger, belittle and
criticise and tell us why a Cornish Assembly would be the beginning of
the end.
We will encourage hope for a brighter future and set out a path to reach it.
We don't have any political masters in London to answer to - we believe
in the democratic right of the people of Cornwall to be able to run
their own affairs.