Newspaper Column – The Cornishman – 15/09/25

• I’m holding a dedicated Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Surgery this Friday, 19th September. An opportunity for parents, carers, and educators to raise concerns about local SEND provision. 

Families, carers, and educators have contacted me over the past year highlighting a system which is overstretched and underfunded. Urgent action is needed. I am holding this surgery to listen, and to work with local families to ensure children get the support they deserve. 

The surgery is part of my effort to press for improvements to services, address delays. It will be followed by a SEND Summit in Penzance later this autumn. 

• Last week, in the Health Select Committee, I raised serious concerns about the severe shortage of Health Visitors.  

Health Visitors play a crucial role supporting parents and babies during the early months and years. Yet, shockingly, their numbers were cut by 40% since 2015.  

Families need accessible, skilled support. I’m pressing the Government to reverse this decline and to invest so that every child gets the best possible start in life. 

• The recent ‘reshuffle’ of Ministers resulted in big changes in many Government departments. Speaking to some of those deposed by the PM, it’s clear it’s an extremely brutal process. One minute you’re in power and the next you’re out, with hardly time to clear your desk! One I spoke to was Fisheries Minister Daniel Zeichner who confided. He also told me he was about to accept my criticism that his officials should do more to respond to the scientific evidence regarding the better management of bluefin tuna which are now more prevalent around the Cornish coast… 

 

• So, the richest man in the world told a far-right London rally at the weekend, “Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight-back or you die”.  

Those who care about democracy here will of course want to distance themselves from Mr Musk’s barely veiled call to arms to people who don’t seem to need much provocation. Let’s see if all do… 

Despite so many police being injured, many badly, I just hope the government doesn’t proscribe the organisers of this event, as ministers proscribed those who protest against genocide in Gaza. We must defend the right to free speech, even ill-informed, twisted and hate-filled speech like that of Musk and Yaxley-Lennon.  

These activists often claim their views are supported by the Christian maxim “Charity begins at home”. But that exposes they haven’t fully understood. It’s “Charity BEGINS at home. It doesn’t END there.” 

It would bring shame on Cornwall if the St Piran’s flag were displayed at such a hate-fest as this. Proper Cornish pride has no truck with the far-right hate agenda, nor narrow separatism, the shunning of others or cutting ourselves off. It’s always been about cutting ourselves into the celebration of diversity across the UK, Europe and a wider world.