Sunday 26 April 2009

The Nation of Cornwall - Kernow

By Adam Price, M.P.

Cornwall too is poised to be reunited this year with the creation of a single Cornish tier of government. The long and convincing campaign by the Cornish Constitutional Convention fought hard to deliver a full-blown Assembly but the watered down alternative of a unitary authority has been imposed by a central government with the full backing of the Lib Dems. But at least Cornwall will be one again – and we wish our sister party, Mebyon Kernow, well in this year’s elections.)

Remember Cornwall has long been a chilling slogan in the Celtic lands because of the way in which that country was dismembered. And despite all our recent achievements as a nation and as a movement over recent years, these words of the Cornish political activist Len Truran spoken thirty years ago resonate for us in Wales even now:

“What fools we Cornish are: kick us, humiliate us, usurp our power, steal our jobs, rape our countryside and buy up our homes and what do we do, we turn out and what do we do, we turn out and vote for the centralist parties that have never done us any good, are doing us no good, will never do us any good”. Well, Wales this Summer is your chance to chart a different course.

The Nineteenth century saw a great Springtime of Nations as the revolutions of 1848 saw new countries created the length and breadth of Europe. In our world today we are now seeing our own Spring Awakening with people and cultures that have long been dormant and subdued asserting their right to exist, their right to dream.

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