By Bev Haigh-Jones
We were very lucky to be able to talk with Dick Cole, representing Cornwall’s very own political party, Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall. MK, as the name suggests, is focused on the needs of Cornwall and its population and their website states the following explanation of their aims.
“We exist to win greater self-government for Cornwall through our own legislative Parliament. We believe that the historic nation of Cornwall, with its own distinct identity, language and heritage, has the same right to self-determination as the other constituent parts of the UK, such as Scotland and Wales. Mebyon Kernow is a progressive party and we are striving to build a confident and outward-looking Cornwall that has the power to take decisions for itself.”
Dick spent some time talking to the group providing background on his own political career, as well as talking about the party and its policies.
Dick Cole:
“I have only put a brief introduction together for our talk as I felt that most things would be covered by the question and answer session.
I’ve been leading Mebyon Kernow since 1997, although I was involved in other ways at an earlier stage, campaigning in my first election during the 1980s. To begin with, my contribution consisted of loudhailer cars and the like, until becoming Press Officer in 1992. This was followed by standing for council elections and I was elected to Restormel Council in 1999.
MK currently have five councillors on Cornwall Council, as well as numerous councillors spread around the various towns and parishes. I’m also head of the MK/Green Party Group. Our party is outward-looking, it has traditionally been pro-European and had links to groupings such as the Rainbow Group, which evolved into the European Free Alliance, which also includes the likes of Plaid Cymru, SNP, etc.
Forgetting economic benefits, culturally Cornwall benefited from European institutions, including the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the language charter through the Council of Europe. At the referendum, MK was staunchly remain, and subsequently we called for a second vote, or confirmatory referendum. When we held a vote on the push for a second referendum the votes in favour were almost unanimous. But I would add that not all MK members were supportive of this stance, those who objected to the policy position were not present at the Conference.
More recently, we haven’t revisited the Brexit issue, preferring to focus on governmental issues such devolution for Cornwall, which is not being pushed by other political parties.”
Q&A.
Q –You say you haven’t revisited the Brexit issue, but should you be doing so?
DC – Because of the size of our party, we are focusing on our main aims. At the last local elections, we retained four seats and gained a fifth, even though the total number of seats was reduced, so that was a good result. At the moment, though, day-to-day issues take up most of the time.
Q –Regarding money and devolution, the EU always recognised that independence was important. Maybe the Brexit vote was an anti-government thing, but I think now is a great opportunity to start talking about it. We should be outward-looking.
DC – It is strange that although Cornwall has been linked to Wales and Scotland, people don’t seem to recognise that. I’m not sure that anti-government feeling was the reason for the Brexit vote, I think that it has more to do with the negative coverage from the press and leave campaigners. I tried to explain to people about the issues around farming subsidies, etc., but it wasn’t understood. One person even told me that her reason for the way she voted was because the Cornish were kidnapped and forced into slave labour, but of course her “facts” were completely false. Parliamentary elections are very different from local ones, you have to work very hard for votes and often negatives are more effective. In 2015, I beat one candidate, but in 2019 my share of the vote was way under.
Q – Green Party experience is very similar. At the moment, the Greens are the only party publicly making a case for rejoin and this seems to be striking a positive note as people realise that Brexit was a mistake. Are you seeing the same sort of response?
DC – Yes, to a degree, but we are not actively campaigning on it at present.
Q – On a national front, surely it is not too late to reverse a bad decision?
DC – Replacement funding for Cornwall was less than half of what had been promised, though the government are trying to claim that it is great. They are not getting nearly enough criticism from the electorate for this.
Q– I felt the same, people take more notice of increased parking charges than a serious decrease in funding from Westminster. We always said that you couldn’t trust the government to replace EU funding.
DC – Yes, and with current funding still uncertain, what will happen later? Labour are not currently providing any information on guaranteed levels of funding.
Q – As Mebyon Kernow I think that you have an opportunity to educate people. We need to start getting the message across and push rejoin.
DC – As councillors we were telling people about the lack of funding, but now we are trying to obtain funding from the Shared Prosperity Fund. It is a difficult balancing act when you are dealing with the people who hold the purse strings. Although the Tory councillors have been positive about certain conversations, there is a need for respect at the same time as pushing for certain projects.
Q – You mentioned that it is difficult to deal with ongoing local issues as well as campaigning. Will you be writing a manifesto?
DC – There is a bigger question as to whether we will be putting up candidates in the General Election. Some members don’t want to stand in some constituencies as it may weaken the chances of the main Tory opposition and, personally, I will definitely not be standing again. We may stand in safe seats. Discussions regarding a progressive alliance can be difficult and frustrating, and they rely on fairness on both sides. They can be quite successful at local level, but have never worked at parliamentary level, though MK and the Greens have done things in the past. If we do stand, it would only be in two or three constituencies, and if we don’t, then we would put our efforts into lobbying candidates.
Q – When will a decision be made on this?
DC – It is likely to be at our conference in November. We will be working on devolution in the meantime.
Q – Another thing that we are campaigning on is voter ID and this needs to be a strong message, do you agree?
DC – I think that the decision was unpalatable and inappropriate, though I also think that the Tories may have damaged some of their own results. I have been a councillor for over twenty years and have only ever become aware of one case of impersonation at a polling station. In that case it was a supporter of mine who voted in his own name, then returned later in the day to vote as his son who happened to be away at the time – he then told me about it. He was quite pleased with himself because he had ensured that I had the extra vote. Strangely, of course, although we now have to identify ourselves before we vote, if there is anything on the ballot paper that identifies a person that vote is invalid.
Q – Apart from the obvious fact that it is a Cornish party, what sets Mebyon Kernow apart from other parties?
DC – The main issue for us is working towards a full devolution programme. We are a party that is left of centre, inclusive and progressive. We are all about positivity and we love the idea of PR – in fact, we are about as far away from the Tory Party as you could get.
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We had a really enjoyable and informative chat with Dick and we thank him for his time and support. If you wish to know more about Mebyon Kernow – the party or its policy – you can find more here: https://mebyonkernow.org/
We don’t have any further political party members lined up to speak to us at the moment, but we are hoping that we might find representatives of other relevant organisations who will be happy to chat. Keep watching for further announcements.
