Today I received a reply to a couple of questions I asked of the BBC which are:

1 Given that the Cornish have had official recognition for the last eight years as a national minority officially recognising our history,culture,identity and language, why does the BBC on both television and radio refer to Cornwall using the words county or southwest England when to some Cornish people references to county or England are offensive. Can the BBC not use Duchy or just use Cornwall and not use the word county?

2  BBC Radio 4 recently broadcast the excellent Tongue and Talk:The Dialect Poets about Cornwall. This programme discussed Cornish identity and culture from a Cornish point of view but what else is the BBC doing to promote Cornish language and identity?

The answer from the BBC was as expected  distinctly underwhelming .

Thank you for contacting the BBC.

Whilst we appreciate your concerns, as you have not provided specific editorial examples to illustrate this I can only answer generally to the point you have raised.

We appreciate the description of Cornwall is a matter many are passionate about, but would state that The Duchy of Cornwall is a private estate owning 7,552 hectares of land in Cornwall. Cornwall is an administrative county of England, with Cornwall Council describing itself as the unitary authority for the county of Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Cornwall’s Chamber of Commerce also recognise Cornwall as a county:

We reported at the time when Cornish people were granted minority status under European rules for the protection of national minorities, which means that Cornish people will be afforded the same protections as the Welsh, Scottish and the Irish; with government departments and public bodies required to take Cornwall’s views into account when making decisions:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-27132035

Nevertheless, we recognise your perspective about this.

Rest assured that all complaints are sent to senior management and we’ve included your points in our overnight report, which is among the most widely read sources of feedback in the company and ensures that your concerns have been seen by the right people quickly.

Thanks again for getting in touch.

Kind regards,

Lucy Currie

BBC Complaints Team

So in the finest traditions of the BBC a cut and paste reply with a general undertone of go away you silly person you can call yourself what you like in Cornwall but to the rest of the country you are a county and a part of England and nothing will change that.

Is that really acceptable after eight years of in theory recognition of our identity?

I will be writing back to the BBC but this time in Kernewek so let’s see how long it takes them to translate it and send another cut and paste response telling me we are just a county of England.

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.