This week's Cornish Guardian had a positive editorial in favour of a Cornish tickbox. It was as follows...

In this weeks Cornish Guardian, my article praises Cornish MPs for their support for a Cornish tickbox on the 2021 census, and looks forward at what the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities should mean for Cornwall.

Votes at sixteen is a campaign that I have always supported and I was pleased when the Scottish Parliament allowed 16 and 17 year olds to vote in the 2014 independence referendum. It was particularly heartening when the Parliament then legislated to lower the voting age for all subsequent Scottish elections (including local councils).

[First published on 27th March 2018] Cornwall Council’s ten-strong Cabinet will be considering a range of important items at their next meeting at County Hall (Wednesday 28th March). These include adult social care and a stadium for Cornwall, as well as a document entitled “New Frontiers,” which I wish to comment on.

"As a local councillor, I was heavily involved in the production of the Cornwall Local Plan. This contains Cornwall’s present housing target, which covers the period 2010-2030, but the process of finalising the target was a charade and local politicians ended up having to agree what was acceptable to the UK Government."

Bernard Jenkin, the Chairman of the Public Administration Committee, is calling on MPs “to decide at the earliest opportunity whether to cut the size of the Commons …”

The Cornish Guardian has, on numerous occasions, reported on the parliamentary boundary review, through which the Conservative Government is seeking to reduce the number of MPs to 600 and redraw the political map of the United Kingdom. Here in Cornwall, there has been massive opposition to the changes which would breach the territorial integrity of our Celtic land and lead to the creation of an unpopular cross-Tamar Devonwall seat.

Last winter, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine publicised its concerns that “emergency care in the NHS” was at “crisis point.” At the same time, the Chief Executive of the British Red Cross claimed that the NHS was facing a “humanitarian crisis.”

Having seen Gwenno in concert at the weekend, my column in this week's Cornish Guardian celebrates those who sing in the Cornish language.

I am pleased that the Parliamentary Constituencies (Amendment) Bill has passed its latest hurdle in the House of Commons, when it was read for a second time.