Summary

The Cornish are a people living on the north-western edge of Europe.  
 

The UK Government has decided that the Cornish are not a national minority for the purposes of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

This report concludes that the Cornish have a distinct historic identity, with origins that are non-English. There are also a number of constitutional, linguistic and cultural ‘differences’. These elements combine to produce a claim to be regarded as a national minority that fits even the restricted UK Government definition of the term ‘national minority’.
  

Moreover, the Cornish are a self-aware and distinct ethnic group and some members of the group see themselves as part of a distinct nation. This has given rise to a cultural and political ‘Celtic Renaissance in Cornwall that indicates its similarities with Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Mann and Brittany and distances it from the majority English culture of the UK state.  
 

Outsiders also often regard the Cornish as ‘different’ and a number of (sometimes racist) preconceptions and stereotypes are reproduced about the Cornish.  
 

 The Cornish are poorer, earn lower wages, are less likely to occupy high status and decision-making jobs and more likely to live in social housing than the English in Cornwall. Population movements of the past 40 years have worsened the relative position of the Cornish.

This has produced a sense of frustration and powerlessness in Cornish communities.  

 The media in Cornwall offer little serious coverage of issues of Cornish identity and heritage or space for minority views of the Cornish and their future.