The UK Government response to the Council of Europe Opinion stretches to over 9,700 words, but the Cornish are hardly referenced at all. The document also fails to address the recommendations drafted by the Advisory Group.
There is a single and inadequate section on the Cornish language which reads as follows:
“The Government recognises the importance to people in Cornwall of their proud history and their distinct culture and heritage, including the language.
“The Government has provided substantial funding of over £650,000 since 2010 to support the development of the Cornish language and is keen to work with Cornwall Council and its partners to encourage the further development of Cornish culture and heritage, complementing the devolution deal already reached with local partners.
“On 2 February 2017, the Government announced the launch of a Cornish Culture Fund of £100,000 to be paid to Cornwall Council which will encourage the further development of Cornwall’s distinct culture and heritage, including the language. This latest funding is in addition to Cornwall Council’s core spending power of £1.7 billion over four years, from which they can allocate resources to their local priorities, including the Cornish language.”
And it is telling that the section on broadcasting notes “each language included in the Framework Agreement” but then goes on to list “Welsh, Gaelic, the Irish language and Ulster-Scots” – but Cornish is ignored.
The full text was as follows:
“The new Charter commits the BBC to continued support for the minority languages of the UK with a clearer commitment to each language included in the Framework Agreement. This sets out the need for the BBC to continue to deliver output in Welsh, Gaelic, the Irish language and Ulster-Scots. There is a new commitment for the BBC to continuing their partnership with MG Alba for the next 11 years and arrangements for the continued partnership with S4C are also in place.”
To put it in polite terms, I am totally bewildered at the UK Government’s failure to meet their obligation with regard to the Framework Convention.
I'm not bewildered. Not a bit. We've come to expect no other from this government, and the pre-coalition Labour government was every bit as bad in their bigotted and dismissive attitude to the Cornish.
ReplyDeleteNote the wording that this Government has used: "The Government recognises the importance to PEOPLE IN CORNWALL of their proud history, etc." In other words, they don't consider any of it important to Britain as a whole, which is totally untrue, as we all know. Not once in this response does the government refer to the Cornish as a national minority.