The celebration of Cornish culture and identity on St Piran’s Day, and the weekend which followed, was really heartening. I was pleased to assist with the events in St Austell and, as the chairman of the St Piran Trust, I would like to thank everyone who supported the procession to St Piran’s Oratory and the remains of the former medieval church of Perranzabuloe on Sunday. I hope everyone there enjoyed the event as much as I did.
But St Piran’s Day also represents a time, when it is important for Cornwall to make political demands of central government.
On the day, on behalf of Mebyon Kernow, I formally responded to the BBC Royal Charter Review (being undertaken by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) and wrote to the Secretary of State Lisa Nandy on this matter. The consultation paperwork makes multiple references to support for broadcasting in regional and minority languages, and it was extremely disappointing that the Cornish language was not mentioned once. Obviously, we have called for the new BBC Royal Charter to include meaningful commitments to Cornish language broadcasting.
MK has also called for the new BBC Royal Charter to ensure broadcasting provision for Cornwall similar to S4C in Wales or BBC ALBA in Scotland. We pointed out that the Cornish, Welsh and Scottish are all protected as national minorities through the articles of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. It is only right that Cornwall therefore has a public service media service similar to that of our Celtic cousins.
But I was especially pleased that politicians on Cornwall’s unitary authority came together on 5th March to send a letter to central government demanding a tick-box for Cornish nationality on the 2031 census, plus one for proficiency in the Cornish language.
The letter was sent to Darren Jones MP, the Minister for Intergovernmental Relations, who also has responsibility for the UK Statistics Authority, and it was signed by Council Leader Leigh Frost (Liberal Democrat) and deputy leader Adam Paynter (Independent), plus group leaders Paul Ashton (Reform UK), Drew Creek (Green), Connor Donnithorne (Conservative), Kate Ewert (Labour) and Rowland O’Connor (Cornish Independent Non-aligned), plus myself on behalf of Mebyon Kernow.
Achieving such a political consensus on St Piran’s Day is impressive and good for Cornwall. I believe it also sends an powerful message to the political establishment in Westminster, but will they act on the representation and deliver for Cornwall and its people?
Article published in the Cornish Guardian (11th March 2026) and West Briton (12th March 2026) newspapers