During the last term of Cornwall Council (2021-2025), I had the privilege of serving as the chairman of the Cornish National Minority Working Group. Established in 2015 following the recognition of the Cornish as a national minority though the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM), it has played a leading role in efforts to advance the rights, visibility and cultural / political recognition of the Cornish and Cornwall.
Over the last four years, some limited progress has been made. The Media Act 2024 was the first piece of UK legislation to mention the Cornish language; Cornwall was represented at the Celtic Forum in June 2024 where the Rennes Declaration (pledging co-operation between Celtic nations) was signed; a Celtic Heritage Agreement was agreed between Cornwall’s unitary authority and the Welsh Government; and a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was also signed with the British and Irish Council (BIC).
But progress has been frustratingly slow in getting the UK Government to meet its obligations through the FCPNM and to live up to the 2014 governmental pledge that “the decision to recognise the unique identity of the Cornish, now affords them the same status as the UK’s other Celtic people, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish.”
The MoU with the British and Irish Council, for example, does not allow attendance at full meetings of the BIC – Cornish attendance is only allowed at meetings relating to Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages in order to advise on the Cornish language. In addition, in ongoing discussions about “devolution,” the UK Government is failing to see Cornwall as anything more than a local government area – which is contrary to the FCPNM.
I am extremely pleased that, at the first meeting of the Working Group since the local elections, I have been re-elected as chairman for the next four years. All political groups on the unitary authority are represented on this body and membership includes the Council Leader, Cllr Leigh Frost, which shows the significance being attached to this work.
It has been renamed as the Cornwall Fifth Nation Working Group to reflect the recent Council vote to seek formal recognition of one of the nations of the UK.
Article published in the Cornish Guardian (27th August 2025) and the West Briton (28th August 2025).