Mebyon Kernow
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| Mebyon Kernow - the Party for Cornwall | |
 |
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| Leader | Dick Cole |
|---|---|
| Founded | 6 January 1951 |
| Headquarters | Lanhainsworth Fraddon Hill Fraddon St Columb Cornwall TR9 6PQ |
| Ideology | Cornish devolution Civic nationalism Social democracy Environmental protection |
| European affiliation | European Free Alliance |
| Official colours | Old gold, Black and White |
| Website | |
| http://www.mebyonkernow.org/ | |
Mebyon Kernow (Cornish for Sons of Cornwall, often abbreviated MK) is a left-of-centre political party in the United Kingdom. The main objective of MK is to establish greater autonomy in Cornwall, through the establishment of a legislative Cornish Assembly. On a national scale Mebyon Kernow have no members elected by the Cornish people to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, nor is the party present in the House of Lords. In June 2009 local elections, three county councillors from the party were elected onto the county's new unitary "super-council".[1] The organisation claim to be civic nationalists rather than ethnic nationalists.[2]
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[edit] History
MK was founded on 6 January 1951 at a meeting held in Redruth. Helena Charles was elected the party's first chair. At the first meeting, MK adopted the following objectives:
- To study local conditions and attempt to remedy any that may be prejudicial to the best interests of Cornwall by the creation of public opinion or other means.
- To foster the Cornish Language and Literature.
- To encourage the study of Cornish history from a Cornish point of view.
- By self knowledge to further the acceptance of the idea of the Celtic character of Cornwall, one of the six Celtic nations.
- To publish pamphlets, broadsheets, articles and letters in the Press whenever possible, putting forward the foregoing aims.
- To arrange concerts and entertainments with a Cornish-Celtic flavour through which these aims can be further advanced.
- To cooperate with all societies concerned with preserving the character of Cornwall.
By September 1951 they had officially come to a stance of supporting self-government for Cornwall, in what they hoped at the time would be a federal United Kingdom. MK won its first seat at local level on the Redruth-Camborne Urban Council in 1953. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, MK was in essence a political pressure group rather than a true political party, with members being able to join other political parties as well. However, by the 1970s the group developed into a more coherent and unified organisation. During this decade, MK began contesting Westminster parliamentary seats as well as local government ones. On 28 May 1975 Dr James Whetter left MK to form the Cornish Nationalist Party which was campaigning for full Cornish independence.
They currently describe their philosophy as based on being: "Cornish, Green, Left of Centre, Decentralist." Mebyon Kernow is a member of the European Free Alliance[3] and although it did not contest European Parliament elections in 2004 or 1999, it has six candidates for the 2009 Euro elections.[4] The party has close links with Plaid Cymru (their partner in the EFA) including a twinning arrangement with Plaid's Blaenau Gwent branch, and to a lesser extent with the SNP.
Daphne du Maurier, the well known novelist, was at one point a member of Mebyon Kernow, as was Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP; he still remains sympathetic to many Cornish issues, but is no longer a member since they became a political party.
MK have an electoral partnership with the Greens. In the 2005 Westminster elections, MK did not contest the St Ives constituency to make room for the Green Party candidate. In return, the Greens did not stand against MK in any of the other four Cornish constituencies. MK has announced it will contest St Ives at the next general election.
In 2009, three Mebyon Kernow candidates are elected onto the newly formed Cornwall Council. Andrew Long for Callington, Stuart Cullimore for Camborne south and (Party leader) Dick Cole was elected to represent St Enoder. [5]
[edit] MK support the inclusion of the Cornish into the FCPNM
In August 2008 MK deputy leader, Conan Jenkin, expressed Mebyon Kernow's support for a proposed legal challenge by Cornwall 2000 over the UK Government's exclusion of the Cornish from the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Cornwall 2000 need to show that they have exhausted all domestic legal avenues by having the case summarily dismissed by the High Court, the Appeal Court and the House of Lords, before the case can be put to the European Court of Human Rights. Mebyon Kernow have requested the support of all of its members for this legal action.[6]
[edit] Electoral performance
[edit] Local elections
The following table shows Mebyon Kernow's representation within the county of Cornwall, including Cornish MP's and councillors, as of June 2009.
| Party | Members of Parliament | Cornwall Councillors |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | 5 | 38 |
| Conservative | 0 | 50 |
| Labour | 0 | 0 |
| Mebyon Kernow | 0 | 3 |
| Independent | 0 | 32 |
(Source Cornwall Council Website)
From 2004 until the district councils were abolished in 2009, there were four MK councillors on Kerrier District Council, along with one in Restormel (the party leader Dick Cole) and, until his death in 2005, John Bolitho in North Cornwall. One of the MK councillors in Kerrier, Loveday Jenkin, joined the district council government in 2005 becoming the first MK councillor in such a position.
In May 2007, Mebyon Kernow achieved its best-ever round of election results in Cornwall’s district and town and parish councils. There were 225 district council seats up for election and MK put up 24 candidates. MK won seven district council seats, a net gain of one; seventeen town/city council seats and four parish council places, a nett gain of one town/parish seat. MK polled about 5 percent of the total votes cast in the district council elections. The seats won included their first seat on Caradon Council for 24 years; defended their seat on North Cornwall District Council; three seats on Kerrier District Council, where they lost one seat; and two on Restormel Borough Council. The results put Mebyon Kernow in third position behind the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party and ahead of Labour in several seats including Kerrier, Restormel, North Cornwall and Caradon. The total MK vote in the May 2007 local elections was over 10,000 votes across Cornwall.[7][8] In June 2008 Mebyon Kernow's representation on Caradon increased to 3 following the defection of Glenn Renshaw (Saltash Essa) from the Lib Dems and Chris Thomas (Callington) from the Indepependent group, to join the party.
In the Town Council elections MK maintained groups of five councillors on both Camborne Town Council and Penzance Town Council, with three new councillors also elected to Truro City Council and is also represented on town councils in Callington, Liskeard and Penryn.[9]
[edit] Nationally
| Election | Votes cast | Share of Vote | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 General election | 1,151 | 1.2 | 2 candidates |
| 1997 General election | 1,906 | 0.8 | 4 candidates |
| 2001 General election | 3,199 | 1.3 | 3 candidates |
| 2005 General election | 3,552 | 1.7 | 4 candidates |
Several former Cornish MPs were also members of Mebyon Kernow, including Peter Bessell (Liberal Party), John Pardoe (Liberal Party), David Mudd (Conservative), David Penhaligon (Liberal Party) and currently Andrew George (Liberal Democrats)
[edit] European Parliament
In 1979, in the first elections to the European Parliament, Mebyon Kernow's candidate Richard Jenkin was able to attract almost ten percent of the vote in the Cornwall seat. This reflected a decade of steady growth for the party. MK continues to contest parliamentary seats with little electoral success, and also local government seats with more success.
| Election | Votes cast |
|---|---|
| 1979 European election | 10,205 |
| 1989 European election | 4,224 |
| 1994 European election | 3,315 |
| 2009 European election | 14,922 |
[edit] Stance on Regional Development Agency
In July 2000 Mebyon Kernow issued the "Declaration for a Cornish Assembly" claiming;
Cornwall is a distinct region. It has a clearly defined economic, administrative and social profile. Cornwall's unique identity reflects its Celtic character, culture and environment. We declare that the people of Cornwall will be best served in their future governance by a Cornish regional assembly. We therefore commit ourselves to setting up the Cornish Constitutional Convention with the intention of achieving a devolved Cornish Assembly.
Three months later the Cornish Constitutional Convention was held with the objective of establishing a devolved Assembly. In less than two years, it had collected signatures from over 50,000 people, of whom 41 650 were resident in Cornwall, which is about 10 percent of the total Cornish electorate.[citation needed] A delegation led by the West Cornwall Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George and representatives of the Convention (Bert Biscoe, Richard Ford, Dick Cole, David Fieldsend and Andrew Climo) presented the declaration to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 12 December 2001.[10]
Cornwall is part of the South West Regional Assembly and the South West Regional Development Agency administrate economic development, housing and strategic planning. The claim that the SW area covered is an artificially imposed large region and not natural.[11][12] Mebyon Kernow wants to break up the SWRDA into small county areas and imploment a Cornish Regional Development Agency.[13]
[edit] 2009 European Parliament elections
In April 2009 Mebyon Kernow announced that its list of candidates for the ‘South West Region’ seat in the European Parliament will comprise their six prospective parliamentary candidates for Westminster. The candidates are:- Dick Cole (St Austell and Newquay), Conan Jenkin (Truro and Falmouth), Loveday Jenkin (Camborne and Redruth), Simon Reed (St Ives), Glenn Renshaw (South East Cornwall), Joanie Willett (North Cornwall).[14] Mebyon Kernow has also committed itself to continuing the fight for a Cornwall only Euro-constituency that would give Cornwall a voice at the heart of Europe.[15]
Mebyon Kernow polled 14,922 votes in the 2009 European elections putting them ahead of the Labour Party in Cornwall.[16] In many places in Mid and West Cornwall, MK polled over 10%. This was in a constituency which included Gibraltar, Bristol, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Mebyon Kernow was not allowed a party political broadcast, but managed to outpoll a number of parties which had been allowed one, including Labour, NO2EU, and Libertas.
[edit] 2009 Cornwall Council elections
In April 2009 MK leader Dick Cole announced that he would be officially resigning his job as an archaeologist with Cornwall Council in order to stand for election to the Council. He had previously worked for Cornwall County Council for 14 years, but it is not permitted for employees of Councils to stand for election to the same Council that they work for.[17]
On 12 May 2009 Mebyon Kernow leader Dick Cole announced that 33 candidates will be standing for the Cornwall Council elections on 4 June 2009.[18] This is the largest number of candidates that MK have ever fielded in a single round of elections to a principal councils or councils. There will be 123 members elected for the new unitary Cornwall Council, replacing the previous 82 councillors on Cornwall County Council and the 249 on the six district councils.[19] Cornwall Council will provide a wide range of services to more than half a million residents, have an annual budget of more than £1 billion and will be the biggest employer in Cornwall.[20]
[edit] Results
| Cornwall Council election, 2009[21] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net Gain/Loss | Seats % | Votes % | Votes | +/- | |
| Conservative | 50 | 34% | |||||||
| Liberal Democrat | 38 | 28% | |||||||
| Independent | 32 | 23% | |||||||
| Mebyon Kernow | 3 | 4% | |||||||
| Labour | 0 | 0% | |||||||
Andrew Long was elected to represent Callington with 54% of the votes[22]. Stuart Cullimore was elected to represent Camborne South with 28% of the votes[23] and Dick Cole was elected to represent St Enoder with 78% of the votes [24]
[edit] Leaders of Mebyon Kernow
- 1951 Helena Charles
- 1959 Major Cecil Beer
- 1970 Len Truran
- 1973 Richard Jenkin
- 1991 Loveday Jenkin
- 1997 Dick Cole
[edit] See also
- Kernow X - Mebyon Kernow's youth group
- Cornish self-government movement
- List of topics related to Cornwall
- Regional Assemblies in England
- Cornish Nationalist Party, an early splinter of MK (1975), often conflated with it.
[edit] References
- ^ Cornwall Council elections - Thursday, 4th June, 2009
- ^ Mebyon Kernow
- ^ The European Free Alliance (EFA) wants a Europe of the Peoples
- ^ South West, Members elected to the European Parliament on 10 June 2004
- ^ http://democracy.cornwall.gov.uk/mgElectionResults.aspx?ID=1&V=1&RPID=690631
- ^ MK support the inclusion of the Cornish into the FCPNM
- ^ BBC - 2007 Local Election results
- ^ Cornish World Magazine
- ^ Mebyon Kernow achieve best ever election results in 2007 district and town/parish elections
- ^ BBC News 11 December 2001 [1]
- ^ Mebyon Kernow opposes SWRA
- ^ Mebyon Kernow says Cornwall needs its own Development Agency
- ^ Cornish MPs and Mebyon Kernow demand a Cornish Regional Development Agency
- ^ Mebyon Kernow announce candidates for the ‘South West Region’ seat in the European Parliament
- ^ MK fight for Cornwall only Euro-constituency
- ^ European Election 2009: South West - BBC News
- ^ Dick Cole to become full time leader of Mebyon Kernow
- ^ MK Cornwall Council candidates 2009
- ^ Cornwall Council June 2009 Electoral divisions
- ^ Cornwall Council 2009 elections
- ^ "Cornwall council". Cornwall Council. http://democracy.cornwall.gov.uk/mgElectionResults.aspx?ID=1&RPID=270582. Retrieved on 2009-06-05.
- ^ Election results for Callington
- ^ Election results for Camborne South#
- ^ Election results for St Enoder
[edit] External links
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