Cornwall is not a "playground for the super-rich"

I have just finished my article for this week’s Cornish Guardian, which is as follows:

Last week, the Sunday Times published an article which claimed that Cornwall was a “playground for the super-rich.”

The article argued that, “with the drive down from London taking just three hours in a Porsche, Cornwall is becoming something of a millionaire’s paradise.” It also had a lot to say is about celebrities, helipads, polo on the beach, and hotel rooms with “the scent of fig electronically pumped into the air.”

Individuals featured within the piece included a businessman who owned “loads of boats … including a 43ft motorboat with every gadget going,” his wife who has “racked up three speeding fines roaring around the county in her Range Rover,” and the owner of a St Mawes second home – complete with a “cinema room and a heated pool” – who felt that “walking down the beach can sometimes feel like Chelsea-on-Sea.”

In the inevitable list of “dos and don’ts” for visitors to Cornwall – renamed by the Sunday Times as the Champagne Coast – the newspaper advised “do chat to strangers, minus your worst West Country accent,” and “do spritz seawater into your hair – a blow-dry looks wrong, wrong, wrong,” but “don’t ask for air-con – use those funny things called windows.”

Such distorted and patronising views distress me, and I do not recognise this almost mythical “lifestyle Cornwall,” that is written about in so many glossy magazines.

I see much more of what the academic Bernard Deacon has described as “life-struggle Cornwall,” in which local people struggle to make ends meet in a low-wage area.

By contrast, the patronising Sunday Times article did not even mention the “locals” until the very last paragraph of their article, where there was an inadequate passing reference to Cornwall being one of “Britain’s poorest counties … qualifying for emergency funding from the EU.”

If the Sunday Times want to feature Cornwall in its newspapers and magazines, I would suggest that they properly address those massive issues impacting on the full-time residents of the Duchy.

They could, for example, examine the growing inequality between the haves and have-nots, explore why Cornwall’s economic performance is only two-thirds of the UK average, delve into its dysfunctional housing market, investigate why over 50% of children on certain estates in West Cornwall are living in poverty, or scrutinise the impact of the government’s austerity measures on local people.

Indian Queens Band Week

Indian Queens’ Band Week kicked off last night with a concert at the local Working Mens Club, which featured the main band and also the training band. I had the privilege to launch Band Week and I also crowned the “Band Queen” and the younger “Fairy Queen.”

It was a wonderful evening and Indian Queens is very fortunate to have such a wonderful institution as the Band. Founded in 1856, it is still at the very heart of my local community and we owe a great deal to the bandsmen and their helpers and supporters for what they do, week in and week out.

There is much planned for Band Week, which includes:

Tuesday 23 July – Bingo at Indian Queens Victory Hall (eyes down at 7.30) and a euchre night at the Queen and Railway, St Columb Road (8.00)

Wednesday 24 July – Quiz Evening at the Bandroom (7.30)

Thursday 25 July – Fete and barbeque at the Blue Anchor, Fraddon (6.00)

Saturday 27 July – Grand Carnival (7.00)

Sunday 28 July – Old-time tea dance at the Bandroom (2.00)

Hope to see you there!

Great news - Indian Queens Primary School secures government investment

Yesterday’s announcement from the Schools Minister David Laws is fantastic news for Cornwall and, in particular, Indian Queens Primary School in my home Parish.

Cornwall Council made eight applications to the Government’s Targeted Basic Need Programme to provide funding to increase the number of places in schools facing the greatest level of pressure due to rising school numbers.

The Government has confirmed that it will support all eight proposed improvements, though I understand that the financial details have yet to be finalised

The additional funding will allow capital works to proceed to provide a total of 840 new school places in the following schools:

Indian Queens Community Primary School and Nursery

Mount Hawke Academy                                                  

Nanpean Community Primary School                               

Pondhu Primary School                                                   

St Columb Minor Academy                                              

St Petroc’s C of E VA School                                           

The Bishops C of E Primary School                                  

Treleigh Community Primary School

Indian Queens Primary School has been under considerable pressure because of the number of children within St Enoder Parish and surrounding areas who need school places.

I am delighted that these pressures have been recognised and Cornwall Council has been able to persuade central government to invest improvements at the site.

Cornwall Council is about to submit a planning application for two new classrooms at the School which is funded separately and this investment will fund further improvements that will ensure the School has capacity to offer places to all local children for the long-term.

Operation Trelawny - 15 years on - the photographs

In a recent blog entry, I mentioned Operation Trelawny from about 15 years ago – Sunday 26th July 1998 to be precise – and I thought it would be good to post a few images of the procession across the Tamar Bridge.

I had been leader of MK for less than a year and it was one of the first gatherings I had addressed in that role.

Teaching Cornish history ...

My article in today’s Cornish Guardian focuses on the importance of teaching Cornish history in local schools. It is as follows:

The attempt by the Education Secretary to introduce a new national curriculum for the teaching of history in schools has led to a number of unedifying rows in recent months.

Michael Gove had claimed he wanted teaching to “celebrate the distinguished role” of the UK in the “history of the world.”

Some historians backed his proposals, but others complained that his preferred history syllabus was not “balanced.” One academic condemned it as “1066 and all that – but without the jokes,” while a magazine thought it resembled a pub quiz.

Mr Gove had also spoken about focussing on “British heroes and heroines.” Margaret Thatcher was named among the initial list of key historic figures to be studied and, unsurprisingly, the Conservative Minister was accused of “political bias,” while he branded his critics as “Marxists” and “lefties.”

The Government has announced that, following the controversy, the proposed syllabus has been heavily revised, with an enhanced emphasis on world history, though “there will still be a strong narrative of British history” at the core of curriculum.

In reality, there can never be a definitive answer as to which aspects of history should be taught in schools, though I have noticed that Cornwall doesn’t get a mention in Gove’s documents.

The national curriculum does however state that “pupils should be taught about … significant historical events, people and places in their own locality,” but the history of Cornwall is much more that “local” history.

There are many educational professionals and teachers, who are already working hard to ensure that local children are taught about Cornwall. It is right that we applaud their work, and do all we can to ensure that their efforts are built upon.

I believe that local children – and adults for that matter – do benefit from understanding more about the land in which they live, and what made it the place it is today.

There is so much to learn about and understand and treasure. This could include Cornwall’s Celtic origins, the Cornish language, mining, the mass emigration of Cornish men and women; the achievements of its people – engineers and inventors such as Richard Trevithick and Henry Trengrouse, scientists like Humphry Davy and John Couch Adams, social reformers and radicals such as Emily Hobhouse and William Lovett; and the struggles of the ordinary people of Cornwall who lived though the social and economic upheavals of times past.

The above image is of workers from Trewhela Clay Works in St Enoder Parish, dating to the early 1930s - it contains quite a few Coles!