Tories risk looking isolated on Cornwall

Responding to reported remarks of two local Conservative MPs in today’s Western Morning News Cornish Liberal Democrat MPs Dan Rogerson, Stephen Gilbert, and Andrew George urged all MPs to get behind the effort to let Cornwall decide its future destiny; an initiative backed by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg MP and Regions Minister Greg Clark MP.

Mr George said:

“Their comments are as strangely suicidal as they are revealing. I assume that they will now vote to protect the integrity of Cornwall’s historic boundaries in the Parliamentary constituencies review? Coming from the party which couldn’t ditch their pre-election promise to create a ‘Minister for Cornwall’ quick enough their comments seem disappointingly out of touch with mainstream thinking in Cornwall.

“Anyone can invent red herring arguments that others advocate ‘victimhood and isolationism’. But coming up with sensible policies which actually let Cornwall to decide for itself how to meet its housing need, transport requirements, plan health services etc without being told by Whitehall, needs more than simply creating another toothless talking shop.”

Stephen Gilbert MP commented:

“It’s not “espousing the politics of victimhood” to suggest that Cornwall has the highest water bills in the country, or that our NHS has been massively underfunded by successive Governments, or our children have lost out to the tune of hundreds of pounds a year compared to those in England or that the gap between wages and house prices in Cornwall is one of the biggest in Britain. These are facts. Worse than that, most of these problems can be traced back to the last Conservative Government!

“It is a disappointment that two of Cornwall’s MPs seem so out of touch with the issues that we in Cornwall face and prefer to alienate those campaigning for nothing more than a greater say and a fair deal.”

Dan Rogerson MP added:

“It seems rather odd to rule out higher status for Cornwall at a time when the Coalition Government is looking for ways to hand power back from Whitehall. Cornwall’s Liberal Democrat MPs will continue to support the calls from the people of Cornwall for an assembly of their own.”

 

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