Author: KernowCalling

Cherilyn Mackrory MP response to Visit England Question.

Thank you for taking the time to contact me and for bringing this matter to my attention, I really do appreciate it.

I certainly think you raise an interesting point and I see no reason as to why this information could not be added to the Visit England website. After all, the Cornish language and culture are what makes the county, along with its stunning locations.

I have now taken the time to write to Visit England to further raise your points. I will of course be in touch as soon as I have had a reply.

In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.

Kindest Regards

Cherilyn

First two Cornish MPs response to KC email.

Below is an email I sent to all of the Cornish MPs.

I am writing to ask for your view about Visit England.

Visit England/Britain are the national tourism agency and a first reference point for many visitors. Their promotion of Cornwall makes much of our coastline and countryside but makes no mention of the Cornish language, culture or history.

National minority means that the Cornish have a right to express, preserve,
share and develop our distinct culture and identity.

The Cornish were recognised as a national minority in 2014.

It’s over half a decade since minority status was officially recognised, for the national tourism agency to ignore this seems wrong and also ignores the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities that affords the Cornish the same status as the UK’s other Celtic people, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish, but more than that it’s also doing visitors a great disservice by not giving them a fuller picture of the Duchy.

The success in many parts of the world of television programmes and films set in Cornwall have given Cornwall a known identity so greater recognition of Cornish culture and history by Visit England could bring more overseas
visitors who would realise the Duchy has something more to offer.

I have emailed Visit England to ask about minority status and representation of the Cornish but all they could tell me was that they did not have any statistics so could not answer the question.

I do not believe that it would be very difficult for Visit England to add a few lines or a paragraph on their Cornwall section to mention Cornish culture and identity.

If you can tell me your view on this subject it would be most appreciated and if you agree to post your response on our site.

Thank you for your time.

The first response within a couple of hours was from Derek Thomas MP for West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Thank you. I agree. It would seem basic practice to promote all positive aspects of a visitor destination and our language, culture and heritage is certainly part of the attraction for visitors ‘in the know’.
The sensible route would be to ask Visit Cornwall to provide Visit England with the information we would want on their site. The potential positive outcome is that we would see an increased number of visitors in the shoulder months and in winter who prefer a quieter experience to explore this asset of ours. This would certainly have the support of Visit Cornwall members.
Let me know if there is something further I can do to help!

Kind regards,
Derek Thomas MPFor West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (St Ives)

The next was again within a few hours from Scott Mann MP for North Cornwall.

Scott has just discussed the contents of your email with me and he mentioned that the idea of a Cornish Heritage as part of a devolution deal was raised previously by George Eustice MP. If Cornwall wants this to happen it would need to be driven by Cornwall Council as part of their next devolution ask.

I would urge you to go through Cornwall Council to see if this can be taken forward.

Kind regards,
Rachel

Rachel Beadle
Office Manager
Office of Scott Mann MP (North Cornwall)

The email from Scott Mann is particularly interesting as it raises the idea of Cornish Heritage but a look on devolution and Cornish Heritage on the Cornwall Council website only states

The final area of agreement is heritage and culture. The Government have pledged support for the creation of a Cornish Heritage Environment Forum.

A Cornish Heritage Environment Forum.. That is certainly ambiguous.

But this and Visit England will be raised hopefully this week with a discussion with a representative from Cornwall Council. I will be writing more about this in the coming days as I get more information.

Truro Our Great Little City.

The future for Truro

Our Prime Minster has announce a £23.6million investment to transform Truro into a thriving waterfront city. The investment will boost the economy, create jobs and transform Truro into a modern economic, and green capital.
That’s really  good of him to do this  but does Truro really need it and is it just a developers charter that price the city out of the range of Cornish people?

Boris Johnson said in speech “We are determined to level up across the entire country, and the Deal we’re announcing for Truro will help to unleash its tremendous potential” and “Through a range of innovative projects including greener transport links and the restoration and renewal of spaces in the city centre” and “The funding will also help to convert some of Truro’s unused buildings (what unused buildings? The post office?) into much-needed homes“

What does restoration and renewal of spaces in the city centre mean? More development? And what the hell does Boris know about Truro?

Our poor city seems to have become a bit soulless over the last twenty years but is that because of changing shopping and socialising habits or was Truro unfortunately a victim of that awful word gentrification?

The  past is not a place to romanticise or regarded as golden time and we need to progress but we also need to learn from the past so let’s look at Truro from the eighties to the mid nineteen nineties.

Then Truro was quite successful,it was a Cornish city, it had a good range of independent shops, flats and bedsits were available and at affordable rents meaning not just Cornish people could afford to live there but a lot of talented younger people could also afford to live in the city which gave Truro a lot of musicians and artists and made it a creative place with a thriving social scene, there were always events or displays going on in the city . I am not saying for one moment that Truro was perfect  it had many rough spots but it had a character, it felt unique and deservedly Cornwall’s capital.

Then came the housing boom and the bedsits disappeared as they were converted back to houses to be sold to take advantage of the spiraling housing prices, the rent on flats and houses  went up and between two made Truro unaffordable to many Cornish people, to be replaced by people moving from other parts of the UK with little idea of the city’s history or traditions which robbed Truro of some of its creativity and culture, then the chain stores moved in and business rates went up and many of the independent shops went. And Truro felt more like a provincial town with identikit shops.

So the new plan for Truro if it happens and is not an election promise will change the city again for better or worse and everyone will have their own view on that, but if Truro is to have its empty buildings converted to housing them it cannot be housing that is claimed to be affordable with no actual mention of the price,if Truro is not to become a modern city in every sense of the word with no soul or character then the council needs to support the creation of shops and businesses that are locally owned and some of the new housing should be made available to people with connections to Truro or to younger people on an affordable rent or part ownership who can give Truro back some of the character is so desperately needs.

Visit England….?

It is now coming up to seven years since the government recognised Cornish Minority Status. The press release from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government states

In 2014, the UK recognised formally the unique identity of the Cornish, affording them the same status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) as the UK’s other Celtic people, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish.

All very good in theory but is anyone really taking any notice of this on the other side of the Tamar?

In reality what was recognition of FCNM for? The Cornish? Many Cornish people already knew that the Duchy was unique and did not care whether the government accepted this or not as it would not have changed their view in the slightest. Or was the FCNM for the rest of the UK? In which case it does not quite appear to be working.

It seems that most representations of Cornwall through public bodies, media and tourism lump Cornwall in as part of southwest England with no representation of the Duchy’s unique identity.

Over the next few weeks I will be contacting some organisations to find out how they approach Cornwall’s identity and whether they know about the FCNM.

So let’s start with Visit England.

For the intrepid visitor planning their first foray into Cornwall there are two primary sites for information Visit Cornwall (more about later) and Visit England.

Visit England/Visit Britain are the national tourism agency, a public body funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, it is the primary site for planning a holiday for both domestic and foreign visitors.

Reading about Cornwall through the Visit England site there are a lot of references to county and England and plenty of references to beaches, hotels and the countryside but nothing about the Cornish people or our culture or history which seems strange for a public body funded by the government, the same government who have recognised the Cornish as a national minority and have accepted the Cornish have a right to express, preserve, share and develop their distinct culture and identity.

With this in mind I telephoned the Visit England press office to ask about this oversight.

KC “ I have a couple of questions and hope you could give me some information”

VE ” Of course that’s what we are here for go ahead”

KC ” Thanks.. It just a couple of quick questions.. Many Cornish regard the Duchy as being distinct from England does Visit England draw any attention to this? Also the Cornish were recognised as a national minority in 2014 what does Visit England do to highlight this to visitors? “

VE ( Long pause)” Um.. Can I take some contact details and I ‘ll get some to information to you”

KC ” Thanks that would be most helpful”

Then I waited and waited and then waited some more before a second call to Visit England press office and a promise that they were looking into my request and would send the information very soon.

Two days later an email from Visit England:

Apologies for the delay in getting in touch, thank you for getting in touch.

Unfortunately we wouldn’t hold data on this to provide insights.

We work closely with the destination office for Cornwall and would direct consumers to their information sites for further detail.

I have been stonewalled in the past but this was a whole new level. So another call to the Visit England press office.

KC ” I was hoping you may be able to give me some assistance on a follow up question?”

VE ” Of course go ahead”

KC ” I spoke to someone about a week ago about Visit England’s approach to Cornish Minority Status, particularly the lack of information about the Cornish on the Visit England site, I was told I would be given information but the email I have received this morning claims you have no data to provide insights “

VE” Ermm….I would not be able to help you with this as I do not have the information “

KC” I can understand you don’t have any data as there is nothing on your site about Cornish status.. But why could nobody just say that? “

VE” Well as I said I can’t really help with this at the moment but I would suggest you get in touch with Visit Cornwall who may be able to help or you could send an email with your question and we may be able to provide some more insight”

KC” Thanks for your help anyway. “

There seemed little point in contacting Visit Cornwall as nearly nine years ago on a warm summers evening in July of 2012 my writing partner at the time on KernowCalling and I had met with Malcolm Bell head of Visit Cornwall in a pub in Truro for a discussion about how Visit Cornwall advertised the Duchy, this meeting and further discussions over a couple more weeks led to Visit Cornwall dropping references to county and England on it’s site and placing more information on the Cornish language and Celtic identity,we were even allowed to write a paragraph on the about section on the Visit Cornwall site.

Visit England seem unable or unwilling to help so the next logical contact would seem to be the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, part of their remit is the promotion of Cornish language and culture but unfortunately when I telephoned this morning not everyone had got quite up to speed on this, the lady I spoke to on the general enquiry line though trying to be helpful had never heard of Cornish minority status and was unable to find a department who could help with my enquiry and could only suggest sending an email to the Ministry. So I followed her advice and sent an email to the Ministry and also to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and to all of our Cornish MPs asking for their view on the way Visit England promotes the Duchy.

I will be coming back to this as I get replies and updates.

A View on Life in Kernow

Labour good for the UK, but for Cornwall?

The Labour government has shown that it is willing to break with orthodoxy by putting people into ministerial positions that they are eminently suitable for, such as James Timpson as prisons minister or Patrick Vallance as science minister. This should benefit the UK as a whole, and after the chaos of the last number of…

by KernowCalling

A view of the Cornish.

In 1948 the writer Sydney Horler at the time a well known thriller writer of some 158 novels who is now largely forgotten .His views on race and religion that he expressed in the characters of his novels which are now very out of place in today’s world ,took it upon himself to write a…

by KernowCalling

Housing the ever growing population.

I asked Cllr Jayne Kirkham  Labour candidate for Truro and Falmouth recently what was the Labour policy for tackling the affordable housing shortage,which according to the Local Government inform website states that the number of households in Kernow on the social housing list stands at 23,181 as of 31st March ( 2021/2022). Cllr Kirkham sent…

by KernowCalling

Request for a review on Lys Kernow and Konsel Kernow.

On the 6th Sept Konsel Kernow/ Cornwall Council sent a reply to an email I had sent asking why they did not use Lys Kernow or Konsel Kernow. Their view was that the use of these names could cause confusion or a lack of clarity. I was told I could ask for a review if…

by KernowCalling

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