1. Royal World Status from Cornish Mining wealth
Adam Smith, in his world renowned standard text-book for economists, ‘The Wealth of Nations’ 1776, Chapter 11, Pt.2, explains: “The tax of the King of Spain is said to be very ill paid, and that of the Duke of Cornwall very well. Rent, therefore, makes a greater part of the price of tin at the tin mines of Cornwall the most fertile known in the world than it does of silver at the most fertile silver mines in the world”. The Stannary mining system has been recognised as the foundation of Cornwall’s status as a UNESCO World Mining Heritage Site, however, the Duke of Cornwall refuses to acknowledge the constitutional history of the Duchy in its monopolisation of Cornish mining wealth. This Duchy, capable of competing with Spain’s South American colonies in terms of the accumulation of wealth, is now claimed by the government to be a private estate.
There is an historical precedent for the administration of the Duchy of Cornwall as a separate country to provide an apprenticeship for Kingship in the case of Charles the First. A former high ranking official of the Duchy has observed in respect of Charles the First as Duke of Cornwall:- “The Prince may have become the victim of his own success, believing that he could govern the realm as he had the Duchy”. (The Estates of the English Crown 1558 – 1640, (Ed. R.W.Hoyle), Graham Haslam, Cambridge University 1992, p.296). This is an example of the “pretended power” abolished by the Bill of Rights 1688. Such Duchy claims as “territorial possessions” and “the government of Cornwall” were made by the Duke in the Cornwall Foreshore dispute between the Duchy and the Crown 1854-58. Read the rest of this entry »
“At 08.30 on Tuesday 26th January, 2010, Mike Chappell is going to be interviewed live on BBC Radio Cornwall by James Churchfield.
The interview will concern the ongoing abuse and insults shown to the Cornish by the media and individuals and follows formal communication between various people and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. (the Cornish have been accused as being lazy, lacking in intelligence, inbred, yokels, straw suckers and much worse in the papers and by others and so on countless occasions) Mike has copies of these comments taken from newspapers and elsewhere as recently as last week and so the evidence is there!
Later during the Lawrence Reed show, 12 noon to 3 PM, Mike Chappell’s interview will be replayed as a recorded piece and then apparently an invited speaker, an academic from Durham University is going to speak. His take is that the Cornish as a people do not even exist and so cannot be insulted! It is possible that Professor Philip Payton from the Cornish Institute may have air time to be interviewed to refute this – we can but hope.
We all know that the Cornish are here and that they are entitled to be regarded as a National Minority along with their Celtic Brothers and Sisters and numerous other groups.
Please, please can you listen into BBC Radio Cornwall and if possible telephone to add your support to the Cornish cause?
BBC Radio Cornwall is broadcast on 103.9 FM, 95.2 FM and 96 FM as well as on the internet.
The telephone number is 01872 22 22 22 to call a show and you can Email at: radio.cornwall@bbc.co.uk
Please could this message be circulated in the hope that the BBC can be shown the strength of feeling over this issue!
Meuras / Thankyou!”
(Received by email today 7.20 pm – sent by Tony)
For more information please contact cornishquest@hotmail.com
Equal rights for the Cornish
In its second report of December 2006 to the Council of Europe on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, (from which the Cornish national minority have been excluded since 1998) the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain asserts, at para.14:-
“The term “national minority” has no legal meaning in the UK and so there is no mechanism under any of the UK’s legal jurisdictions to grant ‘national minority status’ to any particular group nor is it proposed to introduce any such mechanism”. Read the rest of this entry »
Cornish nationalism has its roots in the same argument as Welsh nationalism: namely that the Kingdom of Kernow existed well before England and always apart from it.