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Mr. Simon Thomas (Ceredigion): Shame.
Mr. George: The hon. Gentleman says "Shame", but it is a historical fact. Perhaps the king concluded at that point that the Cornish were not worth the effort of inevitable annihilation.
But perhaps it is time to turn self-doubt into self-belief. Once honourably distinctive, Cornwall now runs the risk of becoming indistinguishable. It faces the paradox of being one of the most distinctive regions in the United Kingdom while its services are more merged with others than anywhere else.
The record of recent years shows that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food office has moved to Exeter, the Camborne police operations room is to move to Plymouth, and the Cornwall careers service, magistrates court and learning and skills council have all merged with services in Devon. The Government have plans to merge Cornwall's probation service, and there are fears that the fire service will go the same way. A number of Labour party spokespeople who came to Cornwall during the election campaign supported the call for a Cornish development agency, but in fact, when the agency came, it was for a standardised region of the south-west.
The worry is what will happen next. Will education, social and health services be merged and amalgamated as well? If so, that would leave Cornwall as little more than a souped-up parish council. The contrast with Iceland could hardly be more stark. While a country with a population half that of Cornwall forges on relentlessly to greater and greater success, Cornwall cannot even plan its own training for post-16s, manage its magistrates court, advise its young people on their future career, manage its police service, plan the development of its economy, organise support for its farming and fishing industries or manage a whole range of other subordinate services.
The conventional arguments against a place such as Cornwall thinking, planning and acting for itself, even on these relatively insignificant matters, are that it is too small, it does not have the clout in the corridors of power, and it cannot achieve the economies of scale. As time goes on, such justifications ring more hollow. It is the modern equivalent of the emperor's new clothes--justifications are repeated, mantra-fashion, as the unquestioned and accepted wisdom of the day.
I need to make it clear that the people of Cornwall absolutely love the people of Devon and the wider south-west. They are wonderful people, and Devon is the most beautiful county in England. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr. Burnett) will be pleased to hear me say that. It is unquestionably true that there is love and strong regard there, one for the other.
I am not saying that Cornwall should not co-operate with other areas on a project-by-project basis. If I may continue with the metaphor of human relationships, the occasional liaison with other areas, Devon or elsewhere, can bring renewed vitality, but an enforced marriage can kill off any lust to succeed, and usually ends in tears.
Whether it is the Government's intention gradually to merge Cornwall into extinction, or whether it is not intentional, it is only right that we have an opportunity to debate it rather than having things slip away over time. It is not that I believe that we in Cornwall should join the tiny handful of certifiable people who want Cornwall to be cut off from the rest of the world--quite the opposite. It is time for Cornwall to cut itself in on the action happening around the United Kingdom, Europe and elsewhere. Cornwall has much to contribute to the celebration of diversity in Britain, in Europe and in the wider world.
Naturally, I welcome and applaud the Government's devolution achievements in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Greater London. I also welcome the recent establishment of the campaign for the English regions. I hope that exciting development will prosper. I am pleased that the north-east constitutional convention and the campaign for the north-east seem to represent the settled will in that area. The campaign for Yorkshire and the Humber and the west midlands and north-west constitutional conventions are unquestionably exciting developments and should be encouraged. I hope that the Government will do what they can to promote them.
I am concerned, however, that uncritical acceptance of the Government's standardised regions could ultimately undermine those initiatives. I have just received a letter from the campaign for the English regions in Newcastle, inviting me to the inaugural meeting of the south-west constitutional convention steering group. In Cornwall, the routine and resounding uninterest and apathy with which the general populace of that standardised region respond may serve only to encourage such initiatives.
If we explain to people the prospects of devolving power--which the majority of people in the House and in the country would support--in the existing regions rather than in standardised regions, we stand a rather greater chance of success. In Cornwall, most normal folk demonstrate a degree of enthusiasm and patriotism for the standardised Government region of the south-west that extends to being able barely to stifle a yawn at the merest hint of the subject.
It is interesting that, as an enthusiastic decentralist, I attended the recent House of Commons launch of the campaign for the English regions in order gently to point out what was unfortunate in an otherwise good cause. At that launch, we were presented with some magnificent achievements, mainly in the north of England, which we all welcome. However, the pressing questions were about when the assemblies could be set up, what powers they would have and how they would relate to local government, quangos and so on. It was exciting stuff.
I was concerned that we were getting carried away. I felt like the boy who pointed out that the emperor had no clothes. I did not want to be churlish, but I had to ask:
- What do we do if the region doesn't actually exist?
I felt that the question needed to be asked. I have to acknowledge that the good people of Yorkshire are lucky. The Government region defined for bureaucratic
convenience happened to coincide, more or less, with a region that had its own recognisable identity. It was the same in other areas to a greater or lesser extent. For Cornwall and Scilly, however, the so-called south-west is a Soviet-style construction for people who are happy to be dragooned into a soulless bureaucracy without a shred of identity.The campaign enthusiasts thought that I should be asking how soon a south-west campaign could be started. However, it would not make sense. Why destroy a region that has a unifying identity--Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly--only to create a synthetic region without an identity? It simply does not make sense.
Those of us who are concerned about the increasing apathy and low turnouts at elections have a double reason to give the creation of standardised regions not a single crumb of comfort or encouragement. The pathetically low turnouts at the latest local elections and the poor turnout at the European elections will surely be eclipsed by new heights of lethargy among an unimpressed electorate faced with bland, uniform and characterless regions. Electors would stay at home in droves if we went ahead with the standardisation of devolution in that way. I am not against decentralisation, but it must be done correctly.
If we were to decentralise powers from an over-centralised state, we should give them to places and regions that actually exist--to territories that people give a damn about. We should ensure that in the enthusiasm to decentralise, we do not simply replace a uniform state with bland and uniform regions purely for bureaucratic convenience.
For Cornwall, the only region is Cornwall--and Scilly, if it were to choose to come on board and have its distinctiveness respected. However, that idea faces such established misunderstandings that it is difficult to take so-called conventional wisdom much beyond a mindless "base camp". The first criticism is always one that dismisses and diminishes the concept. The argument goes, "Don't be silly. You can't be serious," but if one considers the alternatives, the idea is the only serious option available.
Secondly, we are told that such a notion is inconvenient; it is too late, and would cause too many problems--and where would it leave everyone else? However, that argument fails to recognise that decentralisation in its proper form can be untidy. A settlement that reflects community identity and idiosyncrasy does not fall neatly into uniform bureaucratic patterns.
The third criticism--and the one most often made--is that Cornwall is too small. It has a population of about 500,000 when, according to the Government, standardised regions are supposed to have populations 10 times that size. Our problem is that we in the UK have become too insular in our outlook. If we lift our sights above the narrow horizons of the UK, we need only look at regions in Europe and elsewhere to see that regions and provinces vary in size.
A recent brief visit to Canada demonstrated that point to me. Provinces such as Prince Edward Island with a population of 138,000, New Brunswick with one of 755,000, Newfoundland with a population similar to that of Cornwall, and Nova Scotia with a population of 939,000, all have the same powers as Quebec and Ontario, which have populations of 7.3 million and 11.5 million respectively. When service delivery, such as specialist
medical services, requires economies of scale or a large critical mass, that presents no problem. Administrators in Canada say that the problem is easily overcome by co-operation between the provinces.Even the criticism that a Cornish region would be too insular does not stand up to analysis. Any such initiative would open up opportunities for Cornwall in a wider world. Instead of cutting it off, it would enable it to cut itself in--to the celebration of diversity that I mentioned earlier.
The primary downside is that such an initiative might give succour to a handful of people with dubious and certifiable views about Cornwall and the Cornish as a race. Such people are few in number and there would be no tolerance of such views. The prospect of compulsory kilt wearing and constant reference to genealogy would soon become tiresome.
The Liberal Democrat spokesman, my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Mr. Foster), agrees with the proposal. Our party policy is that we should not have a set size for regions and that it is acceptable to have variable speed, variable powers, variable geography and variable size. That would help to create a distinctive relationship with the centre--the relationship between a place and central Government. We do not always need to use the same format and the same uniform approach. There is significant support for that view in Cornwall.
In recent weeks, 1,600 people in my constituency alone have signed documents, written letters and lobbied on this matter. Since I was elected, not one person in Cornwall, or in the Isles of Scilly, which are in my constituency, has lobbied me or written to me demanding that a standardised south-west regional assembly be set up.
Cornwall has opportunities. It has achieved European objective 1 status, and all those involved in securing that, especially the Government, must be congratulated. That result was also due to a popular campaign in Cornwall, and those who were in the area when it was at its height would have seen thousands of people supporting it. That required a statistical, but amicable, divorce from Devon, which allowed the distinctiveness of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to win through. The Government must be congratulated on that.
We now have an opportunity to build on our geographical strengths and our distinctiveness so that we can establish our own brand identity, culture and community, which are necessary to sell Cornish produce. However, we can do that only if our distinctiveness is properly recognised.
As the Minister knows, I want assurances from her. I accept that the Government genuinely intend to simplify the processes involved, but objective 1 regions are finding it difficult to achieve a simplified approach. Ideally, there should be a single point of entry and a single application form for the objective 1 programme, which has been achieved in Ireland and Brittany.
The separate budget heads mean problems of accountability, both in the UK and in Europe. Objective 1 partners are meant to implement joined-up government policies on the ground, but there are four structural funds in Europe, for which four commissioners are responsible. That is not the Government's fault, but within the UK, six Government Departments have an interest in the objective 1 regions. The Department of Trade and Industry even has separate silos of funding in its own
department. What is the Government's thinking about the move towards simplification and the empowerment of partners in objective 1 regions?Since they secured objective 1 status, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have realised that their own distinctiveness must be grasped and enhanced, and their agenda must be taken forward in a positive celebratory way that uplifts and inspires the community and the economy, and that process must be inclusive. We should be taking advantage of the opportunity to make our case, rather than having it dismissed, patronised or undermined. If that distinctiveness is not harnessed for good, it could be driven down and diverted for bad.
In recent months, for example, there has been concern in Cornwall about the vandalism and daubing out of signs and logos on the roadside and at some heritage monuments. The sign of the English rose for tourist destinations and the English Heritage sign have been affected. The two organisations responsible for those logos perhaps need to recognise that Cornwall is passionate about its distinctiveness, and many of its heritage sites were lived in and vacated long before Athelstan drew the line at the Tamar.
There is a great opportunity to develop the sense of distinctiveness in Cornwall, rather than having people express their frustration negatively through vandalism. We want to be inclusive, but we also want that distinctiveness to be recognised and harnessed, and it would not take a lot for the Government to do that. We want to unlock the door to a positive future. We want to build on the opportunity of distinctiveness rather than see it submerged in uniformity.
Perhaps the Minister will accept that the Government, certainly in recent months, have been susceptible to being criticised for control freakery. They have a chance to change that by loosening up and allowing communities and wider society to engage in a debate about diversity. In the spirit of constructive dialogue, I implore her to accept and support our agenda. We should recognise that standardisation does not help and that diversity is a good thing--something we can celebrate.
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