Local newspapers have also backed the campaign for greater recognition for Cornwall, with editorials in the Cornish Guardian, Cornishman and West Briton. An extract is as follows:

“Cornwall’s a nation so why can’t that be acknowledged.

“Cornwall was officially accorded National Minority status by the UK Government more than a decade ago. It has its own language, painstakingly preserved and revived; it has its own cultural patrimony, in its music, its literature, its legend and its land. It has its own flag, recognised all over the world, and even those who weren’t born here think of Cornwall as somehow different and special.

“So it’s not unreasonable for the new Cornwall Council to put down a marker with the (fairly) new British Government after decades of studied indifference to Cornwall’s interests and concerns, to request that the county (sic) be granted Fifth Nation status, just like England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“It might also usefully have pointed out that even the little Isle of Man (population 84,165 when last counted) enjoys more autonomy, self-determination and (dare we say it) respect than Cornwall and its 568,000 inhabitants. With the exception of some off-topic sniping largely confined to the ranks of the Reform group, the cross-party support shown for the motion is to be welcomed.”