The Gorseth Kernow (Gorsedd of Cornwall) was set up in 1928 at Boscawen-un by Henry Jenner, one of the early proponents of Cornish language revival, who took the name "Gwas Myghal", meaning "servant of Michael". He and twelve others were initiated by the Archdruid of Wales. It has been held every year since, except during World War II. 1,000 people have been Cornish bards, including Ken George, R. Morton Nance ("Mordon") and Peter Berresford Ellis. MK was founded on January 6, 1951 at a meeting held in Redruth. Helena Charles was elected the party's first chair. At the first meeting, MK adopted the following objectives:
1. To study local conditions and attempt
to remedy any that may be prejudicial to the best interests of Cornwall by the
creation of public opinion or other means.
2. To foster the Cornish Language
and Literature.
3. To encourage the study of Cornish history from a Cornish
point of view.
4. By self knowledge to further the acceptance of the idea
of the Celtic character of Cornwall, one of the six Celtic nations.
5. To
publish pamphlets, broadsheets, articles and letters in the Press whenever possible,
putting forward the foregoing aims.
6. To arrange concerts and entertainments
with a Cornish-Celtic flavour through which these aims can be further advanced.
7. To cooperate with all societies concerned with preserving the character of
Cornwall.
By September 1951 they had officially come to a stance of supporting self-government for Cornwall, in what they hoped at the time would be a federal United Kingdom. MK won its first seat at local level on the Redruth-Camborne Urban Council in 1953. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, MK was in essence a political pressure group rather than a true political party, with members being able to join other political parties as well. However, by the 1970s the group developed into a more coherent and unified organization. During this decade, MK began contesting Westminster parliamentary seats as well as local government ones. On 28 May 1975 Dr James Whetter left MK to form the Cornish Nationalist Party which was campaigning for full Cornish independence.
They currently describe their philosophy as based on being: "Cornish, Green, Left of Centre, Decentralist." Mebyon Kernow is a member of the European Free Alliance although it did not contest European Parliament elections in 2004 or 1999. The party has close links with Plaid Cymru (their partner in the EFA) including a twinning arrangement with Plaid's Blaenau Gwent branch, and to a lesser extent with the SNP.
Daphne du Maurier, the well known novelist, was at one point a member of Mebyon Kernow, as was Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP; he still remains sympathetic to many Cornish issues, but is no longer a member since they became a political party.
MK have an electoral partnership with the Greens. In the 2005 Westminster elections, MK did not contest the St Ives constituency to make room for the Green Party candidate. In return, the Greens did not stand against MK in any of the other four Cornish constituencies. MK has announced it will contest St Ives at the next general election.
MK support the inclusion of the Cornish into the FCPNM
In August 2008 MK deputy leader, Conan Jenkin, expressed Mebyon Kernow's support for a proposed legal challenge by Cornwall 2000 over the UK Government's exclusion of the Cornish from the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Cornwall 2000 need to show that they have exhausted all domestic legal avenues by having the case summarily dismissed by the High Court, the Appeal Court and the House of Lords, before the case can be put to the European Court of Human Rights. Mebyon Kernow have requested the support of all of its members for this legal action.
Electoral performance
In 1979, in the first elections to the European Parliament, Mebyon Kernow's candidate Richard Jenkin was able to attract almost ten percent of the vote in the Cornwall seat. This reflected a decade of steady growth for the party. MK continues to contest parliamentary seats with little electoral success, and also local government seats with more success. They lost their only Cornwall county councillor in 2001.
The
electoral results of Mebyon Kernow in Cornwall are shown in the table below.
Election
Votes cast Share of Vote
1979 European election 10,205 5.9
1983 General
election 1,151 1.2 2 candidates
1989 European election 4,224 1.9
1994 European
election 3,315 1.5
1997 General election 1,906 0.8 4 candidates
2001 General
election 3,199 1.3 3 candidates
2005 General election 3,552 1.7 4 candidates
Since 11 November 2004, there have been four MK councillors on Kerrier District
Council, along with one in Restormel (the party leader Dick Cole) and, until his
death in 2005, John Bolitho in North Cornwall. One of the MK councillors in Kerrier,
Loveday Jenkin, joined the district council government in 2005 becoming the first
MK councillor in such a position.
In May 2007 Mebyon Kernow achieved its best-ever round of election results in Cornwall’s district and town and parish councils. There were 225 district council seats up for election and MK put up 24 candidates. MK won seven district council seats, a nett gain of one; seventeen town/city council seats and four parish council places, a nett gain of one town/parish seat. MK polled about 5 percent of the total votes cast in the district council elections. The seats won included their first seat on Caradon Council for 24 years; defended their seat on North Cornwall District Council; three seats on Kerrier District Council, where they lost one seat; and two on Restormel Borough Council. The results put Mebyon Kernow in third position behind the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party and ahead of Labour in several seats including Kerrier, Restormel, North Cornwall and Caradon. The total MK vote in the May 2007 local elections was over 10,000 votes across Cornwall. [4][5] In June 2008 Mebyon Kernow's representation on Caradon increased to 3 following the defection of Glenn Renshaw (Saltash Essa) from the Lib Dems and Chris Thomas (Callington) from the Indepependent group, to join the party.
In the Town Council elections MK maintained groups of five councillors on both Camborne Town Council and Penzance Town Council, with three new councillors also elected to Truro City Council and is also represented on town councils in Callington, Liskeard and Penryn.
Several former Cornish MPs were also members of Mebyon Kernow, including Peter Bessell (Liberal Party), John Pardoe (Liberal Party), David Mudd (Conservative), David Penhaligon (Liberal Party) and currently Andrew George (Liberal Democrats) Cornwall Council's February 2003 MORI poll showed 55% in favour of an elected, fully-devolved regional assembly for Cornwall (Previous result :46% in favour in 2002). The campaign has the support of all five Cornish Lib Dem MPs, Mebyon Kernow, and Cornwall Council.
Lord Whitty, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, in the House of Lords, recognised that Cornwall has a "special case" for devolution although "not a region... which can on its own determine its economic, transport and planning infrastructure". On a visit to Cornwall deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said "Cornwall has the strongest regional identity in the UK".
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