‘Unholy alliance’ keeps Cornish out of census
Labour and Conservative MPs united to keep ‘Cornish’ off the 2011 census last night, as the Government voted down a proposal from North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson, to have it included.
Mr Rogerson said the Cornish national identity should be recognised with a tickbox, just as the Scottish, Welsh, English and Northern Irish identities will be. He tabled an amendment to the legislation which enables the census to happen, and gained backing for his initiative from the Liberal Democrat leadership. Labour MPs voted against, while Conservatives sat on their hands.
Commenting, Mr Rogerson said:
“Cornish is an identity of its own, distinct from that of the English, and it should be recognised as such.
“We have already made progress by getting the Government to ‘code’ any answers where a citizen writes that their national identity is Cornish, but this will still vastly underestimate the number of Cornish people since many will simply tick ‘British’ or ‘English’.
“It makes sense to include a tickbox, so that every Cornish person makes their identity known.
“Since we are printing and processing a census anyway, there can hardly be any additional cost to adding a further box for people who want to use it. It beggars belief that Labour and Conservative MPs should have entered into this petty, unholy alliance against the Cornish interest. Unsurprisingly the so-called ‘Shadow Minister for Cornwall’ took the Conservative party line against Cornwall.
“What harm would it do to have a Cornish box there and let people tick it if they want?”
Andrew George, MP for the West Cornwall constituency of St Ives and the Isles of Scilly added:
“We made an important and useful step forward at the last census in 2001.
“We should recognise and celebrate the different groups, identities and peoples of the world.
“Cornwall wants to put itself into the celebration of diversity. Not cut itself off.”
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