Its obligations to the Cornish

Cornwall is a local station in an increasingly weak position in the face of ongoing cuts, while much wider content about Cornwall has been externally created.

Some progress has been made and four Cornish language short films have made it onto the BBC iplayer. But the magnitude of the task is shown by the BBC Charter, agreed in 2016. This document includes a commitment to broadcasting in the “regional and minority languages of the United Kingdom,” but ridiculously includes a definition of such languages as “Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Ulster Scots”.

A Media Bill is presently going through the parliamentary system. Again, this is silent on the request for public service broadcasting for Cornwall but finally – more than 20 years after the language was first covered by the European Charter for Regional and Minority – Cornish is listed as one of the “regional and minority languages” referenced for an emerging public service remit for television.

This is indeed to be welcomed, though there is still a lack of clarity to what extent the Bill will underpin progress towards a Cornish public sector media.

One of the most prominent and highly symbolic campaigns for the rights of Cornish people over the last 10 years was to secure a tick-box on the 2021 census.

We made a strong case to both the Office of National Statistics and the government, arguing that it would be ridiculous to provide a tick-box facility for three of the UK’S four national minorities but to deny the opportunity to the fourth who would be ‘othered’ and forced to ‘write-in’ their nationality.

The refusal of the ONS to promote a Cornish tick-box means that other government agencies and public bodies use this as a justification to exclude the Cornish from their data collection.

There had been a manifest failure from the Westminster establishment to meet their obligations and keep their promise to treat the Cornish in the same manner as the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish. This is shamefully the present reality.

But we must not let such inaction discourage us. We should be very proud of our collective efforts – whether that is through Mebyon Kernow, the unitary authority, various language and cultural organisations, or campaign groups – and we must never stop striving to achieve parity for Cornwall and the Cornish national minority.

Please demonstrate your support by coming along to an important half-day conference being arranged by Mebyon Kernow to mark the 10th anniversary of national minority status, at which we will be issuing a comprehensive challenge to the Government and other organisations. It will be taking place at 2pm on Saturday, April 20, at Lys Kernow in Truro.

⨠ St Piran’s Day celebrations in Truro last month. The benefits of being recognised as a national minority, Dick Cole argues, have yet to be delivered Greg Martin