Azook!

The Cornish word 'azook' is used by the pilot of a gig when he wants his crew to pull hard together.

It is something that Cornish nationalists need to learn to do.

Today I spent a glorious couple of hours in the company of Claire White of Azook CIC.

"Azook is a UK based not for profit Community Interest Company, dedicated to strengthening cultural confidence and social cohesion across communities." A major part of Azook's work is providing learning resources for schools across Cornwall.

Claire, who was previously a teacher, became frustrated with the way that educational resources seemed to take children away from their Cornish communities in order to learn. She believes that children need to learn about the world in a way that also teaches them about their roots and where they live.

Claire and Azook have developed a unique way of providing learning resources that cover the whole of the national curriculum. Azook is a shining example of traditional Cornish innovation being applied in a modern and forward looking way. Their work is steadily providing a massive online source of resources for teachers. 'A Sense of Place' is "a flagship project in Cornwall delivered by Azook CIC in partnership with Cornwall Council. It enables teachers in primary and secondary settings to deliver the curriculum with distinctiveness and diversity."

Cornwall deserves a network of well-funded, high-quality primary and secondary schools, under
local authority control that all provide a consistently high standard of education. Teachers should be allowed to teach and students to study in ways that ensure that our young people are properly equipped for their adult lives.

The marketisation and fragmentation of the education system through the creation of academies and free schools has to be stopped before it does irreparable damage.

As Public services spokesman for Mebyon Kernow I am helping to develop our policy on education and I hope to be able to follow Azook's example in creating a vision of education that has it's feet set firmly in Cornwall while giving children a chance to embrace the whole world.

What Colour Do You Want The Front Doors?

The Tory government, with its Lib Dem side-kick is intent on gathering in power to Westminster. This is all being done under a cloak of 'localism' or 'empowerment'.

For example we are continually told that the localism Bill will give power to local neighbourhoods to plan how they want their development. This is quite simply not true. Unless a local neighbouhood actually desires to concrete over every square inch of green (in which case it can demand that the local planning authority does just that), it will have no greater opportunity than to say what development goes ahead than to (maybe) determine the colour of the front doors of the houses that have already been pre-destined for its locality.

I recently wrote to Cornwall Council to ask what help the Council would have to assist neghbourhoods in producing a local plan. Part of the reply included this telling phrase:

"Furthermore, I would ensure you are clear as to what you would be
seeking to get out of the process - to ensure that a Neighbourhood Plan
is indeed the right approach to be taking. A couple of points to be
clear on is that a Neighbourhood Plan has to be in conformity with the
Cornwall Core Strategy (i.e. the neighbourhood plan has to plan for
housing/economic growth which is at least of the same scale as the Core
Strategy is targeting for Illogan, or in excess of it)."

So there you go. At least the same scale as the Core Strategy, or in excess of it. Lys Kernow is under no illusion as to what powers neighbourhoods will have - isn't it about time our 'local' Westminster politicians were just as honest with us?

Local neighourhoods will only be able to increase levels of development which are set by Cornwall Council. In turn Cornwall Council will have to base their development strategy on a policy of a 'presumption in favour of development' imposed by London.

What colour should we paint the front doors?

Wow! I'm number 53

The Total Politics blog awards have begun to be announced.

I am absolutely amazed and thrilled that anyone at all would take the time and effort to vote for this blog - but it would appear that enough of you have to make me a new entry in the Top 75 Left Wing Blogs (in at number 53). Mur ras to everyone who voted for me, I really do appreciate it.

Congratulations also to:

Cllr Dick Cole - http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.com
Cornish Zetetics - http://cornishzetetics.blogspot.comRob Simmons - http://robscornishblog.blogspot.com
Simon Reed - http://theinsaneramblingsofavillageidiot.com

All doing their best to put Cornwall on the map and all appearing in the Top 75.

I wouls also like to thank all of those people who have taken the time to Tweet, email and Facebook congratulations.

Pickles' Breathtaking Hypocrisy

A hat tip to @Tredhek for this. Apparently Eric Pickles, keen to override Cornwall's elected representatives when it comes to the installation of waste disposal sites, is not so keen on having similar facilities in his own back yard. Is this the definition of NIMBYism or just pure hypocrisy?

Jude Robinson - Queen of Empathy (part 2)

Jude Robinson, the Queen of Empathy, has struck again.

Perfectly demonstrating her lack of understanding of Cornish identity (and her selective amnesia on the subject) she voted with Tories at Lys Kernow in an attempt to further cement 'Devonwall Creep'

Just a year ago, Jude was extolling the value of Cornwall's proud heritage and historic national border and censuring MPs who "betray their contempt for local concerns" . Her amnesia (or is it her total lack of understanding of Cornish concerns) leads her to different conclusions this year.

The tone and content of her blog demonstrates her total contempt for any suggestion of Cornwall exerting her national identity and a lack of understanding of the evils of a creeping Devonwall. Clearly her posturing during the Keep Cornwall Whole campaign was just that. A blatant piece of party politics which she denounces so readily when it suits.

It seems, however, that Jude isn't just rude to me but also to any Cornish nationalist who might challenge her stance on Cornish issues.



For someone, who is often heard complaining about the uncouth and patronising treatment that she receives from political critics, it would seem that she is easily able to hold her own on this score.

Hubbadullya

Today I was a guest of Radio Redruth on a show hosted by Mike Chappell and Tony Leamon - Hubbadullya. Hubbadullya is a Cornish word meaning 'riotous noise' and Mike and Tony's mix of Cornish news, views and music certainly fits the bill!

Following on from the likes of Sarah Newton and George Eustice I was very nervous, but hope that I gave a good account of myself during my first ever radio interview.

We discussed topics such as the Localism Bill, planning and an Assembly for Cornwall as well as looking at the role of a Parish council and several other subjects.

Many thanks to Mike and Tony and to Redruth Radio who will soon be up and running on FM.

Illogan Parish Plan

The Illogan Parish Plan has finally been completed and launched.

The process has taken several years and has involved gauging the opinion of the people of Illogan through questionnaires and then a 'roadshow'.

There is no question that an awful lot of hard work has gone into the plan, which has been created by a steering group made up from the Illogan community. A massive amount of data has been collected and opinions have been collated to show where people believe Illogan's strengths and weaknesses lie. Congratulations to all of those involved in putting this document together.

For me though there is one big disappointment. I believe that the most important part of any plan is to provide a clear signpost as to how to achieve the objectives within the plan. In a plan such as this there should have been strong 'SMART' goals.

'

Unfortunately, it seems that, instead of using SMART principles, the action plan has been made up of some rather non-descript and generically grey 'bureau-speak'.

Cllr David Ekinsmyth, chairman of Illogan Parish Council, and the driving force behind the plan, has said that he wanted a plan that will not gather dust on a shelf. It's hard to see how the action plan will lead to anything but this. Worse still, the final action plan is so vague that there is a danger that it may be used to justify future activity by IPC instead of driving it. It would be very easy to fit any normal, day to day council activity within the action plan and put a tick in a box somewhere.

If you are interested the plan can be found here