DARKIE DAY: FROM THE ONE KERNOW BLOG
It’s an important topic so I’ve copied it over from OneK.
Oct
27
Good article here -Breaking the Banks- on the theme of the financial crisis and after. A couple of choice quotes below:
When an institution becomes so important that it cannot be allowed to fail, that implicit state guarantee removes any incentive – other than a purely moral one – to behave prudently. If the banks didn’t already know that the taxpayer would insure their losses, they do now. None of the new regulations proposed to require banks to hold more capital, change their remuneration packages and so on get anywhere near tackling this issue. And unless it is tackled the banks will simply carry on as before and we’ll all end up insuring them as before.
Now the reason to separate deposit taking and payment systems from the rest of banking is that these two activities are broadly speaking the things we need banks to do for our economies to keep functioning. These were not the areas of the banks that failed, but they would have disappeared along with everything else if major banking groups had been allowed to collapse. So we bailed out a whole load of speculative proprietary and frankly dodgy trading activities that should have gone to the wall in order to keep the cheques flowing and people’s savings in tact. Monumentally expensive and entirely avoidable. We literally can’t afford this to happen again.
Why not go one step further and use the Cornish Community Banking system or a Cornish Credit Union? Equally the Local Exchange Trading Schemes in Cornwall provides an alternative system for those sick of lining the pockets of others. For more information on alternative economics try: New Economics Foundation.
Oct
27
I found the interesting reportage above on the Cornwall facebook site. Someone had attached it to a number of topics with the epitaph “Cornwall is racist”. The short documentary is produced by the group – For Young Black Men ( 4YBM ).
Thankfully the individual did not write ‘the Cornish are racist’ as this of course would have been racist itself. To ascribe essential characteristics to a people, nation or ethnic group (stupidity, criminality, racism, etc) is itself racist. It would after all be just as inaccurate and racist to say that all afro-carribian people are homophobic.
That being said however within the Duchy there is to be found widespread intolerance and racism. The BNP does not have an exceptional vote share in Kernow but they are present. Low in numbers they may be but far-right nationalists, usually British and English but occasionally (sadly) Cornish, do exist and are known to instrumentalise Darkie Day for their own ends. First the offensive and racist elements are pushed to the fore by far-right activists. Then when anti-fascists and the government take an interest, the BNP, of course, is the first to shout about ‘political correctness gone mad’ and ‘British traditions being undermined’.
Coming to Darkie Day itself no apologies will be made for it here. The offensive and racist elements should be removed. However we need to look past the current racist phenomena, which IS instrumentalised by the far-right, to the roots of a Celtic British minority tradition. We also must think about the limits of political correctness to ensure we are not manipulated by fascist troublemakers. A sensible suggestion for the modification of Darkie Day can be found here: Darkie Day.
Unity is Strength
It is sad and counter productive that very worthy campaigns, groups and NGOs, such as 4YBM, that do a great job for one minority group or another (racial, ethnic, religious, sexual etc) often treat the white population of these Atlantic isles, from Lands End to John 0′Groats, as one homogeneous ethnic group.
An English cockney from the East End, ethnically, may have more in common with his Afro-Caribbean neighbour than he does with a Welsh speaking hill farmer or Cornish fisherman.
The truth in fact is that these isles contain a rich ethnic tapestry that includes the Cornish, Welsh and Scottish national minorities. If a group like 4YBM wants to fight intolerance in Cornwall then they should connect a respect for the indigenous Cornish identity with their justified combat against racism. This, I feel, would be a much more fruitful strategy than to ignore all Cornish difference and treat them as simply English bumpkins too far from the big smoke to know what’s good for them. Isn’t to ignore the Cornish minority and their needs to give passive and implicit support to imperialistic English nationalism and anglo-cultural supremacism ?
For more thoughts on this subject see the blog post: Open Kernow.
Of course there is no claim that the daily experiences of a young black person and a white Cornish person are the same. The former may suffer direct and hostile prejudice on a daily basis whereas the latter is denied cultural rights in his/her schools and community. The public is now well aware of the problems faced by new minority groups, but what does your average UK citizen know or think about the situation of the Welsh or Cornish national minorities?
Between minority groups there can be many differences and much misunderstand but it is this blog authors opinion that unity is strength and, where we can, we should work together.
Oct
26
The invitation below looks as if it could be of interest to those campaigning for Cornish rights. For more information and booking details contact Equality South West.
Address: East Reach House, East Reach, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 3EN
Tel: 01823 250832
In March this year, the Government published a Green Paper entitled: Rights and Responsibilities: developing our constitutional framework. I attach a link to the Green paper.
With the publication of this Green Paper, the Government began a national debate about whether we should recognise at a constitutional level the rights we enjoy and the responsibilities we share as members of UK society.
The Green Paper discussed whether there should be a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for the UK, how it might build on the current Human Rights Act and for views on the common or shared values that people subscribe to across the UK that underpin our fundamental rights and freedoms. For further information please see: http://governance.justice.gov.uk/
In partnership with Equality South West, the Ministry of Justice will be co-hosting a one day event at the Taunton Conference Centre, Somerset on Saturday 14 November to hear your views.
This will be your chance to ask questions about the Green Paper and to take part in several discussions on values, rights and responsibilities and to influence the Government’s policy on how power is distributed in the UK. We want your views and will ensure that they are closely considered as part of the national debate. In addition, you will also have the opportunity to hear from the British Institute of Human Rights who will be giving a presentation on Human Rights Protection in Britain.
Oct
25
A truly fantastic exposé of the racist UK press. It’s not just Kernow that suffers these bigoted fools.
Oct
24
DRECKLY : A NEW ONLINE CORNISH MAGAZINE
Another step in the right direction to solving the problem with our Cornish media?
Oct
22
The POWER2010 campaign continues to drive the much needed discussion on democratic renewal in the UK. Recently an article by Billy Bragg called -Has our very stability made us complacent?- was featured on their blog.
Praising Spanish democracy Bragg suggests that asymmetric devolution -devolution to regions of varying sizes- would work for the UK.
The article originally appeared on the Guardian website and can be found here.
Following this scheme Scotland, Wales and Cornwall would all end up with a certain form of ‘national’ recognition and respect for their territorial integrity, but what of the English nation divided into regions?
Such asymmetric devolution to the historic regions of England (including Kernow) has long been a favourite of many a Cornish campaigner as well as groups like Devolve and other English regionalists.
Following the failure of the governments plans to devolve power to their artificial government zones many within the wider Cornish movement believe that the case for Cornwall can be made inside a larger program of devolution to English regions of varying sizes but of more historical and cultural significance. See the map above as a selection of possible regions. Such devolution would return stability to the lopsided UK system (see West Lothian question) following devolution to Scotland, Wales and the Six Counties.
Following this scheme Scotland, Wales and Cornwall would all end up with a certain form of ‘national’ recognition and respect for their territorial integrity, but what of the English nation divided into regions?It seems on this question Cornish nationalists are pulled in two conflicting directions.
On the one hand we are tempted by the quite realistic possibility of regional devolution as long as Kernow is its own region. On the other hand we often defend the right of nations to recognition and self-determination. Even the devolutionists in Cornwall who swear blind that they are not nationalists will still fight tooth and nail to protect the territorial integrity of the Duchy and reject all suggestions of a Plymouthwall or Devonwall region. Is England a nation? Does it deserver the same rights and respect for its territorial integrity as our Cornish Duchy?
You may well find one or two English nationalists ready to countenance Cornish devolution, but the division of their country into regions? Never! An interesting if rather wordy view on this problem can be found on the Britology Watch blog here – England: the unstated ‘real’ name of the British state.
So given that England is a nation and also has a right to self-determination what are the chances that Cornwall would be singled out for devolution after the creation of an English parliament? I’m not alone in thinking we would have a cat in hells chance. Such a parliament, surely based in London, would centralise power and greedily hold onto it.
So damned if we do damned if we don’t. I’d be interested in any thoughts on this question and I also recommend that all interested parties feed their views back to the POWER2010 campaign.
Irrespective of what any future government chooses to do perhaps the situation described above is all the more reason to: 1) fight for Cornish recognition as a national minority and 2) demand a full elucidation of our legal constitutional position as a Duchy now. Both campaigns, if successful, would strengthen our position whether faced with the creation of an English parliament or regional devolution.
Oct
20
I don’t know how seriously to take this story but according to an insane village idiot it appears a replacement for the Cornish national flag, the St Pirans or Gwen ha du, has been mooted in the Duchy.
The republican Cornish Tricolour, it has been suggested, would be more inclusive and secular as well as being indicative of a people searching for freedom.
We’ll wait and see on that one perhaps.
If their is a problem with the current Cornish flag then I think it is its overuse on everything from bad pasty packaging to tourist signs. Have some respect for the national flag and leave it a dignified place in our communities whatever its design.
On another republican note it has been suggested that -localism is republicanism. The suggestion being that popular republican sovereignty, i.e power and sovereignty resting with the people, would be the ultimate form of localism or devolution.
Whilst I agree with popular sovereignty as a necessary pillar of any modern democracy I don’t see it as being the solution to all our woes. Popular sovereignty would not guarantee the rights of historic nations and national minorities within a larger state. Only autonomy and constitutionally recognised cultural rights can ensure the Cornish nation has a future.
Power devolved up from the grass roots to an elected government is all well and good and a must for any future Cornish body of governance, but if the majority in a British Republic decided to give power to a government that ignored the needs of its national minorities and centralise all decision making…….
Oct
18
A truly great yet depressingly accurate article from Cornish Zetetics.
Oct
18
OneK has mentioned a couple of times now the silence eminating from the English Democrats Cornish candidate for Newquay Keith Riley on the subject of the alliance his party has with the white fascist England First Party.
The following is taken from a Welsh blogger.
The English Democrats have links to the ultra nationalist and white supremacist England First Party, headed by notorious fascist and ex-BNP fundraiser in the US Mark Cotterill. Cotterill is described by the American civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Centre as a “key British neo-fascist”, and was an associate of James Wenneker von Brunn, the violent anti-semite and white supremacist who fatally shot a security guard in the recent attack on the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Von Brunn had attended meetings of Cotterill’s American Friends of the BNP. Cotterill was deported from the US and subsequently fell out with mein fuhrer Nick Griffin, hastening Cotterill’s departure from the BNP. He then joined the openly neo-Nazi and now defunct White Nationalist Party, before again falling out with his political masters – with suggestions that Cotterill may have been all too willing to co-operate with the authorities. Cotterill then formed the England First Party. As I believe the saying goes, you can tell a person – or in this case a party – by the company they keep…
Perhaps the first radio interview of Peter Davis, Mayor of Doncaster and English Democrat, will provide some inspiration for our Keith. Davis is a former UKIP member and the father of Tory MP for Shipley, Philip Davies.
Or perhaps not…..
Peter Davis interviewed by Toby Foster of BBC Radio Sheffield
Interview transcript from BBC Radio Sheffield , 8th June 2009
Toby Foster (BBC Radio Sheffield ) : Thanks very much for joining us. I said that we didn’t see it coming – did you see it coming? Did you expect to win?
Peter Davies (Mayor of Doncaster) : Well, well not really. A great friend of mine told me the night before I was going to get a great shock, and that I would win. I was thinking of saving the deposit at the time.
TF : I can imagine. What was it you think that made people vote for you?
PD : Well we were the only party who gave a distinctive agenda to the electorate. All the others talked waffle. I looked at all the leaflets, I couldn’t make anything of them all, they were all the same.
TF : You did give a distinctive agenda, you’re absolutely right, you made some real points on that. Let’s just have a look – let’s have a look at them shall we? The first one of course I think’s an easy one – you’re going to cut the mayor’s salary.
PD : That’s the first thing this morning
TF : Down to £30,000 a year. Now, some people could look at that Peter and say, well, you get more than that for running a supermarket these days. Surely a council deserves… a bit more respect?
PD : No, the council deserves somebody who’s going to run it properly, and it deserves somebody who’s prepared to give their services partly free, in a sense – at one time all local government councillors did all the free, er, it’s become a gravy train and I’m not prepared to be part of that.
TF : So what about the people who work for you? The deputy mayor, other people in the departments – are you cutting their wages as well?
PD : Er, well, I’ve discussed that with-, well not- not the people in the departments, I can’t- I’ve no control over what they’ve been given, but the deputy mayor and the rest of the cabinet will discuss that at, at the earliest opportunity.
TF : Well, you say you’ve no control over people in the departments, one of the big things on your campaign was that you’re going to cut ‘PC jobs’.
PD : Oh yeah, that’s a different thing altogether, er-
TF : Which jobs are those?
PD : Well, er, I’m going to look into that. Things like Diversity Officers, er, the things that are usually advertised in the Manchester- , well, it’s not the Manchester Guardian now – in the Guardian…
TF : Right, so have-, so, so hang on, so so there are politically…
PD : I mean, I can’t give you a full list at the moment, but I will…
TF : But that’s what you put on your manifesto – you must have had an idea on your manifesto what you were talking about?
PD : Yeah, yeah, all these people who are, sort of, controlling thought processes and this sort of thing, and er, erm… every department is riddled with this sort of nonsense these days.
TF : So currently then, this morning, Doncaster Council is riddled with people who are, who are doing this kind of nonsense, ah… and they’re on notice, are they? People are going to lose their jobs?
PD : Er, very likely.
TF : But we don’t know who they are, yeah? But certainly Diversity Officers…
PD : Obviously I… I’m… well, that sort of thing, yes.
TF : So, the Diversity Officer who’s getting ready for work this morning at Doncaster might as well not bother?
PD : Well, he’s… he’s in employment at the moment…
TF : But he won’t be for long?
PD : …I think, I think we ought to be talking about what we’re going to do sort of, er, now and, er, what I’ve discovered – that might be a more fruitful discussion.
TF : Well, I mean… these are the reasons people voted for you. Very bold points, as you said. Er, you’re going to cut translation services for non-English speakers – that’s a very bold point. It’s more than likely illegal, isn’t it?
PD : I dunno… again, I’ve got to find this out. It’s-
TF : Well it is – let me tell you it is, under the European Court of Human Rights it’s illegal.
PD : -Well, well, well let… we’ll look into this – we’re getting council’s opinion on what I can do and what I can’t do, and that’s…
TF : No, no, you said in your manifesto you would definitely do it.
PD : Yeah, well, I… well, I, er, if, if somebody comes in the way and stops me doing these things, then that is an insult to democracy.
TF : So what was the point of your manifesto? You might as well have said you were going to fly to the moon if you’re just going to say now that you can’t do it.
PD : No, look… I’m going to do my best to do it. If I can’t, I shall tell the electorate why I’ve not been able to do it, and who’s stood in the way of it. The-
TF : Well, the law’s standing in the way of it.
PD : -Just a minute, just a minute. The electorate clearly want me to do that. The law needs changing, then, doesn’t it?
TF : Well, you say the law needs changing-
PD : If we get a new government, then we might get rid of some of this ludicrous legislation, and be able to run our own country again.
TF : Okay, now you’re going to cut the number of councillors from 60 to 20.
PD : That is another difficulty, and the first-
TF : Can’t do it, can you?
PD : Er, well, we can appeal to their moral consciences-
TF : So you can’t do it, can you?
PD : Look, you keep telling me what I can’t do. I’ll find out what I can’t do, and if I can’t do-
TF : You are finding out now, I’m telling you, Peter, you can’t do it. You’d have thought you’d have thought of this before you started.
PD : This is quite a pointless discussion. Completely pointless.
TF : Why?
PD : Well – I’m sitting here telling you what I want to do, you’re telling me I can’t do it. I’ll find out – not from you, from other people – if I can do it or not.
TF : Why didn’t you look at to see-
PD : That’s where we go. And then we tell the electorate what’s going on.
TF : Why didn’t you look to see if you could do it before you asked people to vote on it?
PD : Because people want this to happen. And it’s time we-
TF : We all want free speech, Peter, but why didn’t you look into it to see if it could happen before you asked 14,000 people to vote on it? You know what’s going to happen – they got upset with the political processes in Doncaster before, they disliked Martin Winter. You’ve come along, you’ve waved this flag, knowing you can’t back any of it up and they’ve voted for you. How are they going to feel when they realise they’ve been hoodwinked?
PD : They’ve not been hoodwinked, I’m a man of my word, and I shall do everything that I can to put this into practice. And that is something that Doncaster ’s not had before.
TF : You’re going to cut the Gay Pride funding.
PD : Yep.
TF : Erm, how much did Doncaster Council fund Gay Pride?
PD : Haven’t got a clue, I haven’t looked into… I haven’t got the details, I… I haven’t even started-
TF : About right, isn’t it? So how much did… how much was it worth to Doncaster ?
PD : How…er, what?
TF : The Gay Pride march. 8,000 people in town for a day.
PD : I don’t know. They can still come. There’s nobody stopping them coming.
TF : So you don’t know what it costs, you don’t know what it earns, but you’re banning it?
PD : I’m saying that… hard-pressed taxpayers money should not be spent on promoting any type of sexuality whether it’s straight or gay.
TF : But for all you-, but for all you know it could be making a fortune for the town – you don’t know, you’ve not even looked at it.
PD : Well, it, er… it may, it may or it may not, I’m telling you what I’m not doing, and again it was on the manifesto, it was quite clear people appeared to like what I was saying.
TF : Yeah, but the stuff on the manifesto we’ve already realised – you can’t do anything about it.
PD : I think it’s time we finished this interview, it’s quite pointless. I’ve… I… It’s really wasted… I wanted to say a few things this morning that might have been-
TF : Tell me what you want to say.
PD : …that people might have wanted to listen to.
TF : Tell me what you want to say.
PD : Well, I wanted to point out that this morning I was going to, er, see that two social workers were returned to the childrens hospital, er, which were taken away some time ago for some unaccountable reason. I was going to say we’re getting rid of Doncaster News at the earliest opportunity, and I also wanted to point out that this very weekend I’ve discovered that Doncaster is twinned with nine separate towns, er, that the Mayor… the ex-Mayor had a car, for what reason I don’t know. It’s quite reasonable that the Civic Mayor has a car, but why the elected Mayor has one, God only knows, er, and it looks to me like a Daily Telegraph moment, where I shall be discovering things every day that, er, can be got rid of.
TF : Okay… none of that really means anything, does it? Let’s have a look at Doncaster News. You’re getting rid of Doncaster News, that’s a, er, flyer… er, paper that goes to every home in the borough isn’t it, to tell them what you’re doing?
PD : Well, it was to distort… er, what Mayor Winter was doing, yes.
TF : So now you’re stopping communication with the people of Doncaster ?
PD : No – communication will be through the Doncaster Free Press, though Radio Sheffield if we can get some sensible interviews-
TF : Heh.
PD : -and, er, the free newspapers.
TF : So the people who work on Doncaster News, then, are they out of work as well?
PD : I don’t know, I don’t… I, I, don’t know what their full… I’ve… I… I’ve not even got… been in the office yet, I’ve… I’ve not even-
TF : This is the problem, isn’t it-
PD : -had the briefing from the Chief Executive-
TF : You actually don’t understand the laws, you don’t understand-
PD : Okay, I’m stopping this interview, it’s a complete waste of time, er, you’re not asking any sensible questions, and er, I really don’t want to continue.
TF : Peter, all I’m asking is how you’re going to deliver on your election manifesto?
