The G7 has been infuriating. Not just the traffic or the security restrictions which are bad, but not as bad in my view as the media coverage.
When was the last time Kernow had so much discussion in the media apart from holiday and property programmes? This should be a time for the Duchy to show itself as a small but proud nation.
But every news programme talks about this county of South West England, they talk to people living in Kernow about the G7 and people respond with England and county . It’s like 2014 never happened.
So how can we get the message not just to people on the other side of the Tamar but also to people in Kernow that we are a recognised small nation with a protected identity and culture not just a county of England?
When I was first asked if I could help with a campaign to get a Cornish emoji I was a bit stumped,it was not something I had thought about before, I spent the next week reading everything I could on emojis and at the end of the week I was left feeling that even though I could bore anyone I met in the Duchy within a couple of minutes on the subject I still did not quite know how to proceed. Then during the weeks leading up to the G7, the media and its complete lack of understanding of our culture and their reliance on tweets it sort of made sense.
It will be a lot harder for organisations such as the BBC and Sky and Google and Facebook to claim we are part of South West England when our flag is recognised by the Unicode Consortium, the governing body that releases new emojis for worldwide adoption, who only recognise national flags not state or regional.
The argument for a Cornish emoji for someone coming to the subject seems to go: the Welsh and Scots have one, the Cornish are a national minority so we should have one, which is a completely fair argument to make but is that enough of an argument to make to the Unicode Consortium?
The case has to be made that the a St Piran emoji is not just an emoji for Cornwall, it’s for the Cornish communities around the world , it’s branding for every business in the Duchy who use their Cornish identity as a marketing tool, a badge for every visitor with memories or a longing to visit the Duchy again and for the people in the Duchy it symbolises our home, our identity and our nation.
In a couple of weeks KC will start a petition asking for a St Piran emoji. This campaign already has the promise of full support from all of our Cornish MPs and some members of Cornwall Council, who I would like to thank. Over the next couple of weeks we will be contacting Cornish businesses and those in the arts sector who have offered to support the campaign.
I would ask once the petition is launched if people would sign and share the petition so it can be sent to the Unicode Consortium to show that Kernow is entitled and there is real need and support in the Duchy for an emoji.
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KernowCalling 