Newspaper Column – The Cornishman – 01/12/25
- The Cornish motto, “One & All”/”One hag All” underpinned our campaign to secure an “exceptional” devolution deal for Cornwall from government. Many told us we couldn’t do it. That we’d have to cave in. That our case didn’t meet the government’s bland, uniform rules. But they were wrong. Cornwall will have greater ability to shape its future, without having to first ask permission from Bristol. Exeter or London.
For me, it’s been a campaign over almost half a century. Since the general election, Cornwall’s 6 MPs stood together, and worked as a team, with Cornwall Council. We said we wouldn’t flinch. And now we have the building blocks to assemble a better way forward, based on Cornwall’s strengths (in marine innovation, critical minerals and mining, green technologies and geothermal, space science etc). We also secured stronger recognition for the Cornish language (I successfully did my small part in leading the parliamentary campaign a quarter of a century ago) and backing for our growth/industrial strategy.
Thank you to all who’ve been involved over the years. Though it’s an important step, it’s only a staging post. Now we must prove why this was the correct way forward, and how we will capitalise.
- Go Cornwall deserves enormous credit for offering to plug the enormous gap left by First Bus, but Ministers must recognise that Cornwall cannot maintain its public transport infrastructure based the climate of uncertainty. “Sticking plaster” and “make-do” solutions won’t do.
Central Government invests billions in the wraparound public transport services of Greater London. £19 billion on the Queen Elizabeth line alone.
In comparison, Cornwall’s public transport is treated like a “country cousin”, characterised by piecemeal uncertainty and the vagaries of short-term commercial decision-making and the consequential stop-start services.
- Our protest against Lloyds’ decision to shut its Penzance branch next month is gathering pace. We deliver our petition to London next week. There’s still time to support.
We of course acknowledge the chance of halting the closure is small – after all, this is a purely commercial (not political) decision, made remotely in Lloyds HQ, and no one else has halted closure. However, in character with the spirit of Penzance ‘Pirates’, our community won’t just roll over. We’re determined to put up a fight.
After all, their proposed replacement – a single “community banker” visiting once every fortnight to sit at a remote desk – isn’t good enough.
I wrote to Lloyds CEO, Charlie Nunn, calling on him to ‘pause’ the closure; to negotiate with us a more acceptable settlement. Our town’s vitality depends on a functioning Bank presence. Post offices and banking hubs do a good job, but they do not provide the full range of services needed when the online system fails (as it often does), when we have complicated transactions on which face-to-face support is needed, and to ensure the vulnerable and digitally excluded get the help they need.