10 questions to ask John Pollard about his 'Case for Cornwall"

10 Questions to ask John Pollard about 

‘A Case for Cornwall’

1. The new Conservative government will be bringing forward plans to create a Devonwall parliamentary constituency. A major part of the justification for ‘A Case for Cornwall’ is that Cornwall is a single political entity - what do you intend to do to ameliorate the threat of Devonwall to Cornwall’s distinct political status?

   
   
2. ‘A Case for Cornwall States’
 

   “An increasing number of Cornwall’s towns and villages have more than 1 in 5 dwellings classed as second homes, which are distinct from holiday homes in that they are invariably empty for large periods of the year. We want to work with the Government to develop proposals that would enable local communities to have a greater control over the numbers of second homes to maintain a more balanced housing market.”

   

   What are the proposals that have been formulated to be ‘developed’ and why don’t you simply call for the devolution of all planning policy, procedures and appeals in Cornwall to Cornwall?

   
   
3. ‘A Case for Cornwall’ claims that recognition under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities gives us ‘parity’ with the Welsh, Irish and Scottish parts of the UK. If this is so then the ‘ambitious’ thing to do would be to call for a legislative assembly for Cornwall to match our counterpart nations. Why does Cornwall Council’s ambition fall well short of real ‘parity’ with the other nations of the UK?

   
   
4. If you are ambitious for Cornwall why not support the creation of a legislative Assembly, similar to the Scottish Parliament?
   
   
5. You have used the phrase ‘Stand up for Cornwall’ as a tag line for your proposals and encouraged the idea that people who support ‘A Case for Cornwall’ are ‘Standing up for Cornwall’. Does this mean that people who do not support ‘A Case for Cornwall’ do not ‘Stand up for Cornwall’?

   
   
6. What is the difference between ‘worklessness’ and ‘unemployment’?

   
   
7. ‘A Case for Cornwall’ claims that: Cornwall Council has “a strong and proven track record of strong financial management”. Do you maintain that Cornwall Council can be trusted with even more of our money following the recent debacle surrounding the Council’s failed contracts with BT?
 

      8. How will you make sure that the people of Cornwall rather than multinational corporations benefit from Cornwall's natural resources?

9. The theme that runs through ‘A Case for Cornwall’ is that Cornwall Council wants to ‘work with government’. Recently ‘working with government’ has resulted in £196 million of cuts in public services in Cornwall. Why would the people of Cornwall expect Westminster to change its approach to Cornwall Council in the future?

   
   
10. ‘A Case for Cornwall’ cites Newquay Airport of Cornwall’s successes. In 2011 the LEP’s chairman claimed that the Aerohub would create 1000 new jobs - but the number is well below this. It seems that every day a new tranches of public money is given to the LEP which claims that it will create thousands of new jobs. The LEP consistently fails to deliver on promises of creating jobs - who is the LEP accountable to and what procedures are in place for reviewing the performance of the LEP?