PRESS RELEASE : On this day in 2001 – 50,000 for home rule in Cornwall [December 2022]

The press release issued by Mebyon Kernow on 12 December 2022.

Twenty-one years ago today, a delegation from Cornwall visited 10 Downing Street to deliver the list of names (on a CD) of the 50,000 people who had signed declarations in support of a Cornish Assembly. The delegation included MK leader Cllr Dick Cole and leading figures from the Cornish Constitutional Convention.

Looking back to the declaration campaign, Cllr Dick Cole said: “It was an immense statement that 50,000 people signed individual declarations seeking greater powers for Cornwall, and it remains a disgrace that the Westminster establishment ignored the declarations.”

The anniversary comes just days after the launches of the so-called “devolution deal” from the Conservatives, which was all about local government tweaks rather than devolution, and Labour’s “A New Britain: Renewing Our Democracy and Rebuilding Our Economy,” which did not mention Cornwall once!

Cllr Cole added: “While we look back to 2001, it is most important that we redouble our efforts to campaign for meaningful devolution to Cornwall.”