Rob's blog

Cornwall Council's twitter ban

2012-01-25T09:43:00.001-08:00

Today the Conservative leader of Cornwall Council took the bizarre step of banning councillors from communicating on the internet during meetings. A few councillors (lamentably none from MK) tweet during meetings, understandably some tweets criticise the regime and these have caught the attention of Cllr Robertson. I am all in favour of people tweeting from such meetings, it provides an insight

The Cornish language film Tamara, a quick review

2012-01-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

Image taken from http://www.cornwallfilmfestival.com/ Last year at the Cornwall Film Festival awards, Will Coleman's short Cornish language film Tamara won the Govyn Kernewek award. Thankfully it is available to watch online, which is highly commendable. For many of the films featured in the awards do not make it to the wide audiences online, which is a great shame as there is a wealth of

government position of ignoring Cornish identity is untenable

2012-01-20T07:12:00.000-08:00

In July last year the 2nd Cornish national minority report was published. It urged the government to recognise the difference of the Cornish people in law by adding the Cornish into the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, link here to the pdf. Basically this means that the government officially recognises Cornish difference and admits that we are a different people and

senior Cornish Tory echoes MK policy to lobby for a Cornish police force

2012-01-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

the Canadian Cornwall has it's own police force why not the Cornish Cornwall? Very pleased to see that the Conservative cabinet member and councillor for Bodmin, Lance Kennedy echoing my call to devolve policing to Cornwall. It's always been the policy of Mebyon Kernow that all governmental institutions and bodies be devolved to Cornwall including the police force. The idea is certainly not

high time austerity applied to the ruling classes

2012-01-17T01:49:00.000-08:00

I am absolutely appalled to read of plans, of government ministers planning to buy the Queen a yacht. These millionaires probably don't realise in their fancy houses and fancy cars that things have changed over the last few years. Here in the real world, wages are stagnating, companies going bankrupt, prices rising, unemployment rising. So it's so disappointing to read that the Queen's cousin and

the Scottish independence referendum and an assembly for Cornwall

2012-01-13T03:48:00.000-08:00

The news and political classes are abuzz with the prospect of Scottish independence. A very real and exciting landmark in UK politics is upon us, whatever the outcome, the SNP and their talented leader Alex Salmond are making history. In the years to come historians, enthusiasts and commentators will speculate on the events of the next few years attempting to see where it all went right or wrong

thinking about devolution to Cornwall and a Cornish assembly

2012-01-04T04:04:00.000-08:00

I hope all of my readers had a great Xmas and New Year and ate and drank too much (I certainly did) and caught up with family and had a good break. Welcome back and I hope 2012 is a good year for you all. Just a quick blog to add some comments about a Cornish assembly. I blogged late last year (A Case for a Cornish Assembly) arguing that politics needs to change in Cornwall, to unlock Cornwall's

Nadelik Lowen to all my readers

2011-12-24T02:17:00.001-08:00

Hope you all have a nice Xmas, if you're a regular reader or this is your first time, thanks for reading my blog, it means a lot to me that so many people do read it. I won't be blogging for a while, I am taking a break over the festive period. I'll be back refreshed and better than ever in the new year. Nadelik Lowen ha Blydhen Nowydh Da, Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. Kernow Bys Vyken !

Government inaction, flawed localism and Wave Hub

2011-12-22T04:01:00.000-08:00

Image from www.investincornwall.co.uk Today it was announced that the Future of Wave Hub is Secured. Which is a story about the transfer of the management of Wave Hub (http://www.wavehub.co.uk/) to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the ex RDA project now has a new owner. To be cynical, nothing has actually changed there are still no users of this exciting and innovative

The case for a Cornish Assembly

2011-12-15T04:41:00.000-08:00

The tenth anniversary of the Cornish Assembly petition has just passed. For a little bit of background the Labour government had announced that any area demonstrating 10% support (of the adult population) for devolution could have it. Always keen to rise to a challenge, Mebyon Kernow duly accepted, I don't imagine for a minute that Blair really thought anywhere would be able to achieve this. But

debunking the myth of the Lib Dems commitment to fair funding for Cornwall

2011-12-11T14:27:00.000-08:00

At the Mebyon Kernow conference, Dick Cole said in his speech "Members of the London based political parties may time and time again stampede onto the political ground that we have served with honour, but they have so often failed to remain true to those causes they have espoused for short term political advantage. They've so blatantly co-opted the policies of MK,they've said one thing to people

Penzance parking....

2011-12-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

I live very near to the middle of Penzance and parking is a great problem on my street and lot's of the residential streets nearby. Many people that shop or work in town, park in these streets rather than pay to park in Cornwall Council car parks. I don't really blame these people, parking is very expensive and as we all know there is a recession at the moment, people have less money due to

Reforming planning and how to bring power back to communities in Cornwall

2011-12-05T15:11:00.000-08:00

I believe that Cornwall Council is not a proper body to adjudge all the planning cases around the Duchy. Below I have noted some of my criticisms of the planning process, I think some of my ideas would alleviate these concerns and have the added benefit of bringing 'localism' (aka local rule) to Cornish communities. I don't think for a moment I have all the answers so please add thoughts to the

Let's kick Devonwall into touch

2011-12-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of comment and condemnation recently about the Government's boundary 'reforms'. There are far too many articles and examples to be all listed here, but it's fair to say that people from a variety of backgrounds from throughout the UK are unhappy at the proposals. The proposals stand to disregard natural and administrative boundaries and leave constituents being represented

is Kevin Lavery in a world of his own?

2011-12-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

You may remember I blogged about a month ago about Kevin Lavery Cornwall Council CEO and how he was hellbent on taking the job of returning officer for the up coming Devon and Cornwall Police commissioner elections. Well now it emerges that -against the wishes of a vote in full council- he did indeed take an interview for the position in London. A real snub to Cornwall Councillors, but also a

My experience on the Politics Show and why Stephen Gilbert needs to read government press releases.

2011-11-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

During the last week I was interviewed by BBC Spotlight about my own experiences trying to get on the 'housing ladder'. Parts of my interview were repeated on the Politics Show South West on sunday morning. I was talking about my own sense of frustration, I am one of the many people in Cornwall who want to simply live in a decent house they can afford. For the record (and if you're my landlord

LEP Cornwall needs to learn from the Black Country

2011-11-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

I have posted a few times recently about the Cornish and Scillonian LEP and it's lack of obvious work. In the last couple of weeks they have announced public consultations (again please do go to them and have your say see here for details) and a website http://www.cornwallandislesofscillylep.com/. I did get to thinking am I being a bit unfair on the LEP perhaps? for whatever reason maybe it does

A great end to November for Mebyon Kernow & Loveday Jenkin

2011-11-25T05:57:00.000-08:00

Mebyon Kernow councillor Dr. Loveday Jenkin Barely a month ago I wrote about the defection of Derek Collin's from the Lib Dems to MK and how this was a great end to October for Mebyon Kernow. I was optimistically writing that this should set the tone for November and I hoped we could look forward to a successful month both at the party conference and in the Wendron by election. After a lot of

Cornwall and the government must do more for Scilly

2011-11-24T02:55:00.000-08:00

I lament the fact that the ancient links between Penzance and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly look in jeopardy. There is still little resolution and a firm plan on the sea link, I welcome the fact that people in Penwith are getting together to try to rescue the mess caused by the Conservative-Independent Cornwall Council (the Penzance Seafront Forum). The helicopter link too looks in doubt

a sincere apology to my readers about my housing blog

2011-11-24T02:21:00.000-08:00

I must apologise to you all, on monday I blogged on how the new government policy and existing governments policies for housing were failing the people of Cornwall. In it I had written in response to the BBC article titled Get Britain Building, I had wrongly assumed that this was based upon fact and research in this assumption I was wrong, it is little more than a copied and pasted government

There is an alternative & Mebyon Kernow is fighting for it

2011-11-23T08:52:00.000-08:00

Listening to the speeches of the Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards and SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson at the MK conference it was clear to me there is a better way of doing politics and only Mebyon Kernow can offer it to the people of Cornwall. Plaid and the SNP have forged a path not just of devolution but also better governance and fairer deal for the people of Wales and Scotland this is an example that

Government housing policy is failing the people of Cornwall

2011-11-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

Today the Coalition government has announced it's own policies to solve the housing crisis, the BBC news site leads the story with the title Affordable Home Shortage: Government to reveal plans. First of all we must congratulate the cabinet of millionaires, for realising that housing is problem and restarting the debate over what can and ought to be done. Unfortunately the government has

Cornwall and Scilly LEP gets a website

2011-11-18T13:11:00.001-08:00

It is my great pleasure to announce that our LEP finally has a website, well done. It's simple, only one page but it's a website and designed by a Cornish company too. Hopefully it will soon have more information and we can all get to grasps with this mysterious organisation and what it is going to do. Here's the website they've yet to work on their search engine presence as a quick Google search

Cornwall LEP announces public consultations (at last)

2011-11-16T06:03:00.000-08:00

So here we are 12 months and 17 days since the LEP bid was announced as successful by the coalition government and the LEP has announced public consultations. Only a day after I blogged criticising the LEP for a lack of discernible action such as consultations. So I was pleased to read of the roadshows being announced on the Business Cornwall newsite, as much as I have criticisms of the LEP

Cornwall and Scilly LEP, some thoughts a year in.

2011-11-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Ages ago I blogged about the new Cornwall LEP, arguing that it should learn from the mistakes of the RDA. That it should be more receptive to existing business and try not to solely focus on bringing business to Cornwall, instead building upon what we have already. However, I ought to have argued that the LEP should learn from the successes of the RDA. As much as there were bad investments and