By Graham Smith
For all its faults, Cornwall Council is the primary focus of local government in Cornwall. There is no need to change that.
If some sentiments can be eased by renaming County Hall a “Parliament” or “Assembly” then so be it. Those who wish to can already refer to the building in Truro as “Lys Kernow.”
The council is elected every four years. All that needs to happen is for the politicians who win those elections to realise that they are then supposed to govern.
There is nothing that would improve the council more than adequate scrutiny. But we tend to get the politicians we deserve. This should be an easy fix. We just need to try harder at election time.
Be careful what you wish for
Cornwall Council’s initial proposals for devolution call for similar “Nationhood” powers to those enjoyed by Scotland and Wales.
But County Hall’s White Paper quotes no evidence in support of its claim that this is what the people of Cornwall actually want. It seems incredible that Cornwall Council should have spent eight months producing a document which completely ignores this question.
In North Cornwall and in South East Cornwall, particularly in towns and villages close to the Devon border, the White Paper is seen as just another self-serving power-grab by Truro. It is regarded as job protection for those senior council officials who might struggle for employment elsewhere.
In Scotland, it took two attempts, through referenda, to persuade enough residents that devolution was a good idea.
The first Scottish referendum, in 1979, produced a 52%-48% majority in favour of devolution but on such a small turnout that the result was not valid. In 1997, Scotland voted 74%-26% in favour of having a Scottish government, with tax-raising powers, in Edinburgh.
A feature of both results was that different regions within Scotland voted in markedly different ways – with anti-Edinburgh sentiment still a feature.
In Wales, in 1997, a referendum opted for devolution by the narrowest of margins – 50.3%-49.7%. Anti-Cardiff sentiment was a feature of the result.
Mebyon Kernow’s call for a Cornish Devolution Bill is reasonable. The arguments should be made and examined. But MK cannot aspire to copy Scotland and Wales without also submitting to a referendum.
Pro-devolution campaigners should recognise the possibility that not all parts of Cornwall want to be governed from Truro. It might not get as bloody as Ukraine, but the price of County Hall’s 15 years of serial incompetence could well be rejection.
This could certainly be the case if the White Paper continues to argue that the Cornish language deserves parity with English.
Truro’s renewed bid to take over the National Health Service is a particular cause for concern for hundreds of thousands of people who currently use Devon’s acute hospitals.
There seems little doubt that the Conservative administration at Cornwall Council sees the renewed devolution debate as an opportunity, by appealing to Cornish nationalist sentiment, to make mischief for the Labour government.
The Liberal Democrats are likely to back the Tories in this ambition.
If the boot were on the other foot, I am in no doubt that Labour would do the same to the Conservatives.
Mebyon Kernow’s motives are at least honest.
But the aspiration to declare Cornwall as a “nation” – like Scotland and Wales – cannot duck the responsibility to test that sentiment through a referendum.
Community Area Partnerships
Cornwall has about 230 town and parish councils, now loosely “organised” into Community Area Partnerships. These admirable minor local authorities, whose councillors are all volunteers and who receive no payment whatsoever, could and should enjoy greater powers.
