Mebyon Kernow believes that the historic nation of Cornwall, with its own distinct identity, language and heritage, has the same right to self-determination as other constituent parts of the UK, such as Scotland and Wales.

We believe that the people of Cornwall should have more say in how their lives are run and that politicians elected in Cornwall should be taking the key decisions about Cornwall’s future – not unelected civil servants or disinterested ministers in London. But Cornwall is alone amongst the Celtic nations in having no form of effective self-government. Government bodies, quangos and agencies which develop key strategies and policies are located outside of Cornwall and inevitably fail to recognise the strengths of Cornwall or understand the special needs of its communities.

There is certainly a desperate need to address the unequal constitutional relationships between the various nations and regions of the UK, as well as the centralising influence of London and the South East of England. Mebyon Kernow believes that there needs to be a mature, respectful and wide-ranging debate about the future of the whole of the United Kingdom and how it is governed – with the future constitutional status of Cornwall at the very heart of this debate.

Mebyon Kernow continues to be the only political party campaigning for the recognition of Cornwall as a distinct national community for all forms of governance, administration and service provision.

MK is committed to building a new democratic settlement, with the meaningful devolution of significant powers to a Cornish Parliament, within the framework of the United Kingdom.

It is the view of MK that Cornwall merits stand-alone legislation, like the other Celtic parts of the UK. It should not be dealt with as a so-called “English region” or, as is often the case, a mere portion of such an “English region.”

Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall is campaigning for:

• The creation of a Cornish Parliament with powers equal to those of the Scottish Parliament, which would set the funding and policy framework for the majority of the public sector within Cornwall. This would include responsibility for Health, Education, Training, Local Government, Housing, Economic Development and Transport, Energy, Law and Home Affairs, Environment, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, Sport and the Arts.
• An end to the power and influence of unelected and unaccountable bodies such as the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.
• The strengthening of local government and an end to the dictatorial top-down control of Whitehall.
• The creation of public services for Cornwall which would include, for example, a Cornish Constabulary and Cornish emergency services.

Later this year, Mebyon Kernow will publish: “Towards a Cornish Parliament” which will set out MK’s proposal for greater self-government for Cornwall, and related democratic reforms, in more detail.

Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall has a proud record of campaigning for fair funding for Cornwall and its local communities.

We know that Cornwall gets a raw deal from Westminster. Our hospitals, schools and vital public services receive less funding than other parts of the United Kingdom – while infrastructure spending by central government is disproportionately centred on London and the South East of England.

Over the last twelve years the situation has been made much, much worse by devastating cuts to Cornwall’s public sector by Coalition and Conservative Governments. Local government has been particularly hard hit, while the NHS and associated ambulance services are struggling to cope with demand.

Cornwall previously received the highest level of structural funding form the European Union, because of low economic performance and the widespread poverty in Cornish communities.

Following Brexit, the Conservatives have repeatedly pledged that funding through the Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) would at least match the size of the European Union funds that Cornwall would have received if Brexit had not happened.

The most recent report produced by the Conservative-controlled unitary authority stated that, “in order to be no worse off,” Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly would “need to receive £700 million from the UKSPF over the coming seven years.”

But shamefully, the Government recently announced that Cornwall would have a three-year settlement worth £132 million – less than half of the anticipated £300 million.

Mebyon Kernow is demanding a Commission to investigate the full extent of this Government ‘underfunding’ of Cornwall.

MK is pressing all of the London-based political parties to support our call for a Commission and to agree to abide by the Commission’s findings, thereby guaranteeing Cornish communities their fair share of central government funding in the future, as well as additional investment for compensate for past underfunding.

Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall is committed to a just and fair society. We believe effective public intervention is needed to combat poverty, tackle social deprivation and fight for the disadvantaged, and to tackle ills in Cornish society, such as social deprivation, unemployment, low wages and poor housing.

We will strive to build strong inclusive communities with free and equal access to well-funded education, healthcare, social care and welfare services.

Mebyon Kernow supports a universal health service for the people of Cornwall which supplies the best possible healthcare free at the point of use. We deplore the policy of the present and recent governments to turn the provision of a basic human right into an exercise in business management.

MK is also committed to the provision, by the state, of a just, proper and high quality education – at all levels – for all as of right. We support moves to end tuition fees for university students, through a progressive shift in taxation.

As a Party, we have long maintained that important services such as energy, water and rail should be publicly owned and publicly accountable, based on community, social need and environmental protection rather than a private system based on profit.

Mebyon Kernow has been an out-spoken opponent of the savage cuts of recent Governments and their associated privatisation agenda, the damaging impact of which cannot be over-stated.

MK will continue to oppose the cuts of the London-based political parties and the privatisation of the National Health Service and other public services, which are desperately needed to support the young, the elderly, the sick, the less well-off and those in search of work.

Mebyon Kernow is campaigning for the rebalancing of the United Kingdom economy, away from the present concentration on London and the South East of England. This includes a commitment to an Economic Fairness Act to ensure that Cornwall gets its fair share of government investment.

It is unacceptable that Cornwall is the poorest part of the United Kingdom, that our economic performance (GVA) is less than 75% of the UK average, and our workers earn 20% less than elsewhere.

Such figures show that UK Governments have failed Cornwall for decades and have failed to address the massive economic inequalities between the regions and nations of the UK.

MK supports a range of measures to improve Cornwall’s economic performance, which will help people to provide a better future for themselves and their families, whilst protecting our exceptional natural environment.

This would include higher levels of both public and commercial capital investment to boost economic activity and improve our skills, productivity, infrastructure, housing stock and public services. Commitments include reduced business rates for small and town centre businesses, controls to ensure more public sector contracts in Cornwall are awarded to local firms, increased local production to meet local needs, more value-adding processes within Cornwall, the greater use of natural resources, investment in Green technologies such as energy efficiency, investment in high technology industries to create skilled high value jobs, and the enhancement of higher education facilities within Cornwall.

MK is also committed to tough regulation of the big supermarkets to prevent them operating as a virtual cartel to force down farm prices to uneconomic levels. An economically viable farming sector is fundamental to security of food supply and the character of the Cornish countryside and way of life.

MK is committed to effective public intervention to tackle ills in society such as unemployment and poor housing. This means that there is a need for a sufficient public resource and this implies fair and redistributive taxation.

Fair taxation based on ability to pay, with increased spending to be partly funded by shifts in taxation onto the better-off, lies at the heart of our policies.

Since 1979, there has been a major shift in taxation from direct to indirect taxation. Tory and Labour reforms have meant lighter taxes on wealth and profit, but a financial squeeze upon the poorest in society.

Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall supports:

• An enhanced living wage for workers, to be partly met by reductions in pay for those at the top.
• A reduction in indirect taxation which falls most severely on the less-well-off.
• An end to the inequitable council tax and its replacement with more progressive local taxation based on income, with the rich paying their fair share.
• More action to crack down on tax avoidance / evasion which is costing the Treasury billions and billions each year.

MK will also oppose all plans for regional pay being promoted by central government and other bodies, with pay scales in Cornwall equivalent to those in the rest of the United Kingdom.

Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall supports well-balanced planning policies which protect the Cornish countryside, while allowing appropriate developments that meet the needs of local communities (ie. proper local-needs housing).

MK councillors have also consistently opposed unacceptable developments, such as the incinerator at St Dennis and the so-called “eco-town” near Penwithick, as well as excessive levels of housing and other growth in Bodmin, Camborne, Falmouth, Newquay and St Austell.

But the approach of central government through their National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is turning Cornwall into a “developers’ paradise.” The “presumption in favour” of growth has led to unchecked and damaging development, with developers lining up to ride roughshod over local communities. UK Governments have also put in place a regime which forces Councils to set high housing targets and limits any meaningful local discretion.

Mebyon Kernow is campaigning for all decisions about planning to be taken in Cornwall.

This would include the production of a Cornish National Planning Policy Framework to replace the NPPF produced by central government, which would allow housing and other targets to be agreed in Cornwall without interference from Whitehall. MK is also determined that any appeal process is controlled from within Cornwall – so that planning inspectors from Bristol do not over-rule the views of local communities and their elected representatives.

MK is also committed to a lower and more sustainable housing target, with development geared to meet local needs, and planning policies that defend the Cornish countryside and protect town centres from out-of-town developments.

Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall believes that local families have a fundamental right to good quality housing, both for purchase and rent, in their own communities and at a price that is truly affordable to people of Cornish wages. MK is proud to have campaigned on housing issues for many decades.

But there has been a housing crisis in Cornwall for twenty years, which is worse now than ever before. The housing market is dysfunctional and completely out of control. The cost of housing, both for purchase and rent, has rocketed, creating a massive mismatch between local wages and the cost of housing.

Private rented properties are getting increasingly difficult to find and extremely expensive because of the rise of airbnbs, while getting a “council house” is but a distant dream for the many thousands in housing need.

The market was fractured by the Thatcherite sell-off of council houses in the 1980s. And it has been worsened by the actions of recent governments, which has massively slashed investment in affordable housing, replaced the social rent model with a new “affordable rent” model that sets rents at 80% of the inflated cost of private sector rents, allowed tax-breaks for buy-to-let “investors,” and reinvigorated the “right-to-buy” of council houses. They have even raised the threshold to trigger affordable housing on smaller sites and undermined the ability of Councils to provide for the needs of their communities, while large house-builders have posted record profits.

Mebyon Kernow is campaigning for:

• A planning system which focuses on providing local-needs affordable housing – not large amounts of open market housing to benefit speculative builders.
• The development of council houses as a priority, alongside initiatives to increase the number of proper affordable homes through registered providers, charities, co-operatives and Community Land Trusts.
• Legislation to halt and reverse the spread of second and holiday homes, as well as additional local taxation on those properties which are not permanently occupied.
• Legislation to halt and reverse the spread of airbnbs.

Mebyon Kernow understands that unsustainability is truly global and must be tackled through action at worldwide as well as local levels.

The threat of climate change is the defining issues of modern politics and the world is facing serious environmental threats.

All nations around the World must meet this challenge head-on and put the issues of sustainability at the heart of decision-making.

MK is committed to the creation of a Cornish Parliament, which would produce a Climate Change Act to set out actions to reduce greenhouse emissions and develop a truly sustainable, low carbon economy.

MK is particularly determined to make Cornwall more self-sufficient, with greater resilience in terms of food production, energy production and supply networks.

Mebyon Kernow believes that to achieve real sustainability we must foster radical changes to every aspect of our lives.

Our policy commitments include working towards:

• A Green New Deal for Cornwall that creates high-quality jobs in environmental sectors, through initiatives such as an enhanced programme of home insulation, green electricity through renewable energy schemes, in particular geothermal, and the development of a green integrated transport system.
• A decentralised and sustainable economy which provides local needs as locally as possible, invests in local food production, and reduces levels of long-distance travel and dependence on imports.
• A zero waste strategy which invests in the radical reduction of waste and increased re-use and recycling, eliminating landfill and incineration.

MK is also campaigning to protect Cornwall’s green fields from inappropriate and unsustainable development.

Mebyon Kernow is an internationalist and outward-looking political party. Our vision for Cornwall and the World is underpinned by respect for the diversity of the planet, both its human cultural traditions and its natural environment.

It is our belief that nations and regions throughout the World should work together to foster global peace and stability. Indeed, the strongest argument for international co-operation remains the two World Wars which ripped much of the globe apart.

MK is committed to a Nuclear-Free Cornwall and the eradication of nuclear weapons across the globe. It is our view that there is no strategic rationale for the retention, still less the renewal, of the British nuclear arsenal and it should be disarmed immediately.

MK also supports all moves to control the arms trade, which is having such a terrible impact on developing countries. Mebyon Kernow spoke out against the military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and has also backed improved support for military personnel who have participated in these recent conflicts.

MK fully supports the UN’s target of 0.7% of GDP for overseas aid, which we believe must be targeted at those areas in greatest need and not be linked to inappropriate trade deals. It is absurd that poor countries are being forced to destroy their environments and ransack their natural resources in a vain attempt to pay back unfair debts. We believe that such Third World debts should be written off.

In 2014, central government bowed to years of pressure and recognised the Cornish people through the Framework Convention on National Minorities.

This cultural recognition, embodied in minority status, is a landmark ruling, but the UK Government is failing to meet its obligations through the Framework Convention.

The challenge now for the people of Cornwall must be to achieve a wider acceptance of our right to greater control over our political, civic, and economic lives through the creation of a legislative Cornish Parliament.

MK members work hard to protect Cornwall’s unique national identity, grounded in its culture, language, traditions, history and distinct constitutional position. They have been instrumental in numerous campaigns including those for increased signage in the Cornish language, and against plans for a Devonwall parliamentary seat.

Mebyon Kernow is campaigning for:

• Greater local control over all aspects of Cornwall’s heritage, culture and identity, including the transfer of responsibility for work currently undertaken in Cornwall by agencies such as English Heritage.
• A National Curriculum for Cornwall, that ensures subjects such as Cornish history, culture and language are taught in all local schools.
• Increased investment in the Cornish language (Kernewek) for the training of language teachers, the provision of courses and its wider dissemination.
• The recognition of Cornwall as an international sporting nation, which is able to enter competitions such as the Commonwealth Games.
• A full Inquiry into the Duchy of Cornwall and Cornwall’s ambiguous constitutional relationship with the Crown, and the contradictions between our constitutional status and current administrative arrangements.