10.1 The social changes outlined in the previous section shade into cultural issues. While there is a lack of both quantitative and qualitative data on these questions we might offer some preliminary observations on the position of the Cornish.

10.2 Little properly funded quantitative or content analysis research has taken place relating to the media. However, a common complaint is that the media in Cornwall are unresponsive to Cornish issues, peddle simple stereotypes and are even engaged in a systematic campaign of propaganda and censorship of Cornish views (see Angarrack, 1999, 277-300). It is not difficult to see why this conclusion is reached. The press in Cornwall is in monopoly ownership, focuses on parochial issues and does little to encourage critical debate about the political and social developments shaping modern Cornwall. When reporting issues of the Cornish heritage or Cornish culture the press can be either whimsically nostalgic and backward looking or patronising and trivialising (see examples in Angarrack, 1999, 285-286). Cornwall has no daily newspaper and the Plymouth based Western Morning News, which covers Cornwall, has consistently attacked or, more commonly, ignored campaigns to end the institutional vacuum that renders Cornwall powerless. Moreover, it provides a steady diet of positive and uncritical news coverage for the process of institutional merger of Cornish with Devon based institutions that peripheralises decision-making in Cornwall. (For examples see ‘Bid for agency to help boost West’s image’, Western Morning News, 27th September, 1994 and ‘Boosting the image of the region’, Western Morning News, 2nd February 1995)

10.3 Local radio is also characterised by parochialism and a restricted space for the Cornish. It has been pointed out that, in the adverts for local events and services on commercial radio, Cockney or other English accents are used, never Cornish ones; “Unless, as in one particular advert for carpets, it is to portray someone who is stupid and/or mischievous” (communication from Steven Horscroft). Television coverage of Cornwall is patchy and concentrates on leisure activities. Cornwall is subsumed in a larger ‘South West’ or ‘Westcountry’ region. As a result its identity is lost. When media coverage of Cornwall and Cornishness was temporarily heightened by the re-enactment of the 1497 uprising and the march to London in 1997 television tended to shield its "viewers from the very real issues of identity, human rights and poverty and to pass the whole thing of as a piece of early summer madness in the mould of battle re-enactments or tiddleywinks championships" (Biscoe, 1998, 158).

10.4 Lack of positive role models in the media helps to reproduce stereotypes of the Cornish and of Cornwall as either a holiday land of cliffs and coast or of a slightly mysterious and interestingly romantic place of tribal passions. Such easy stereotypes and the more common lack of visibility of the Cornish people in the media, especially television, can reproduce a sense of inferiority and a lack of respect for Cornish culture. These stereotypes and myths are found even at the peak of supposedly technical institutions of economic development. Thus Mike Boxall, Director of the Westcountry Development Corporation, in 1994 asserted in all apparent seriousness that "tribalism increases as you move west" into Cornwall (communication to the author at a meeting in Plymouth, September, 1994).

10.5 This may lead in turn to the predominance of what has been referred to as an ‘acceptance stage’ of Cornish identity. In this stage the individual might reject his or her Cornish background, seeing Cornwall as ‘backward’ and its people as ‘unambitious’ or ‘incompetent’. Or they might display a more passive acceptance, "characterised by a self-deprecating knowledge that he or she is Cornish, perhaps regretting that ‘I’m only Cornish, I can’t do much’ or insisting that ‘it’s too late, Cornwall can’t survive the pace of change" (Ivey and Payton, 1994, 156). Such lack of respect for one’s own cultural identity can leave the individual prey to populism, demagoguery, simplistic solutions and racism, as pointed out by Kennedy. He argues that a "confident sense of worth in being Cornish puts us in a good position to understand other minorities and have a positive approach to multi-culturalism" (Kennedy, 1993, 21), From this perspective, it is the denial of , or the refusal to recognise, a Cornish cultural identity that leads to despair and racism.

10.6 ‘Culture’ in Cornwall tends to be reserved in the minds of policy-makers and grant gatekeepers for ‘high culture’. The lack of Cornish control over arts funding, which is delivered via a quango based outside Cornwal at Exeter in Devon, helps to reinforce the marginality of ‘Cornish’ culture. Cornish culture is marginal in the sense that it is outside the mainstream understanding of the gatekeepers and marginal in the sense that it is also working class culture, rather than middle class. This explains the widespread feeling in Cornwall that Cornish culture is underfunded and ignored when compared with arts forms such as choral music, theatre, fine art and the like. Here, deeply ingrained attitudes about ‘culture’ in England reinforce the ethnic divide within Cornwall.

10.7 Just as there is no direct Cornish control over arts funding in Cornwall so there is no direct control over the material artefacts of the Cornish heritage. In a move that infuriated some Cornish people, ancient monuments in Cornwall have been the responsibility of the government quango ‘English Heritage’ since the 1980s. This repackages Cornish heritage as ‘English’ heritage in a blatant disregard for the historical perceptions reviewed in Part 1 of this report. More fundamentally, it again confuses and marginalises the Cornish cultural identity.

10.8 The influence of ‘English Heritage’ reinforces the effects of the “English” National Curriculum in schooling. The introduction of a centralised curriculum leaves little, if any, space for the education of young Cornish children in their own historical and cultural traditions. The "imposition of an anglocentric curriculum for Cornwall in 1987 destroyed much of the good work of the Cornwall Education partnership with individuals and institutions developing the Cornish Studies for Schools resource pack" (communication from Ann Trevenen Jenkin). Wales has its own national curriculum, as does Scotland. At the same time Manx language development teachers have been employed in Manx schools since the early 1990s. Cornwall has neither its own curriculum nor Cornish language development teachers, despite there being more speakers of Cornish than Manx. Given such disregard for Cornish culture and traditions it comes as little surprise that some reach the conclusion that Cornwall and the Cornish people have been subjected to "a millennium of religious and cultural persecution… centuries of utter contempt, wanton destruction and grinding exploitation meted out by our oppressors" (letter from John Angarrack to Bert Biscoe, 12th November 1999).

10.9 Cultural differences, in terms of the perceptions groups have of their social world, intersect in complex and subtle ways with the economic and social patterns of work, housing and demographic structures. Thus, it has been suggested that there are different attitudes to family amongst the Cornish – "assistance between Cornish kin is more frequent and intensive than among in-comers or outsiders, and … kin relationships are closer" (Buck et.al., 1993, 680-681). This may mean that housing need is more readily accommodated within the family among the Cornish, producing a hidden homelessness (Williams, 1993, 170-171).

10.10 In a similar way "the Cornish… are more prepared to view the landscape as a means towards production rather than consumption" (Thornton, 1996, 256). But at the same time the non-Cornish are more prepared to see the landscape as something to be utilised for recreational and tourism purposes. This sometimes results in disputes over development and planning issues taking on an ethnic dimension as differing perceptions of landscape and its utilisation clash. This is most visible in attitudes to Cornwall’s minescapes. Thus, from a Cornish perspective these derelict landscapes "contribute to a local and proud sense of identity" (Cornish Social and Economic Research Group, 1996). But from a non-Cornish perspective, "the existence of obvious dereliction is an impediment to the creation of a favourable attitude towards Cornwall" (Cornwall County Council, 1976, paragraph 15). Social relations in Cornwall often contain such additional ethnic tensions on top of the more usual divisions around faultlines of class and gender (for an example see Ireland, 1993, 680-681).

10.11 The UK Government seems to be unaware that in Cornwall cultural differences mean that economic and social disparities are sometimes viewed as part of "the struggle for our very survival as a distinct people… This is not just a matter of wishing to obtain parity with Surrey in central heating radiators per home" (Letter from John Angarrack to Bert Biscoe, 12th November 1999). This economic and cultural cocktail was clearly illustrated during a debate at Cornwall County Council in 1998 concerning the bid documents which were part of obtaining Objective 1 structural funding. During questions about the use of the Cornish language in such a document a group of protesters lobbying on behalf of Cornish Solidarity, a pressure group established in 1998, together with some councillors became increasingly irritated by what they saw as the refusal by the leader of the Liberal Democrat group to answer the question directly. After some heckling one councillor "rose to his feet and informed the Chair that in the circumstances of persistent refusal to answer the question or to acknowledge the importance of the language left him with no alternative – and sang out the old American civil rights anthem ‘We Shall Overcome’. The public gallery joined in and many councillors stood and joined him" (communication from Bert Biscoe).

Summary

	The monopoly-owned press in Cornwall provides little space for a critical debate on Cornwall’s future.
	Radio and television reproduce majority stereotypes of Cornwall and the Cornish and offer few positive role models for Cornish people.
	As a result the media help to reproduce a sense of inferiority and a lack of respect by Cornish people for their own history and culture.
	‘English Heritage’ and the National Curriculum reinforce this situation.
	Cultural differences intersect with the economic differences outlined earlier.

Related Articles of the Convention are:
Article 4.2 (see box section 8)

Article 5.1 The Parties undertake to promote the conditions necessary for persons belonging to national minorities to maintain and develop their culture, and to preserve the essential elements of their identity, namely their religion, language, traditions and cultural heritage.

Article 6 The Parties shall encourage a spirit of tolerance and intercultural dialogue and take effective measures to promote mutual respect and understanding and co-operation among all persons living on their territory, irrespective of those persons' ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity, in particular in the fields of education, culture and the media.

Article 9.1 (part)... The Parties shall ensure, within the framework of their legal systems, that persons belonging to a national minority are not discriminated against in their access to the media.

Article 12.1 The Parties shall, where appropriate, take measures in the fields of education and research to foster knowledge of the culture, history, language and religion of their national minorities and of the majority.

Article 14.1 The Parties undertake to recognise that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to learn his or her minority language.

Article 14.2 In areas inhabited by persons belonging to minorities traditionally or in substantial numbers, if there is sufficient demand, the Parties shall endeavour to ensure, as far as is possible and within the framework of their education systems, that persons belonging to those minorities have adequate opportunities to be taught the minority language or for receiving instruction in this language.

Article 15 (see box sect. 9)