Steve Double, Member of Parliament for St Austell and Newquay, has used his first week sitting on the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe to highlight the Cornish minority status.
Speaking today in Strasbourg, Steve thanked the Council of Europe for granting Cornish people protected Minority status in 2014, but highlighted the subsequent lack of progress by successive governments in following through with the Council’s recommendations.
He also raised the current campaign for a Cornish Tick Box as part of the next national census, which Steve and his Cornish MP colleagues have been leading the charge on.
Speaking after the debate, Steve said:
“I am deeply honoured to be the first Cornish MP to sit on the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe.”
“I was keen to use one of my first opportunities to speak at the Council to thank them for their granting of the historic protected minority status to the Cornish people in 2014.”
“Cornwall has many unique parts to it including our heritage, history and language.”
“Unfortunately, one thing that is also unique about the Cornish people is that we are the only Celtic people in the UK who do not have an identifying tick box on the national census.”
“I have been working with my Cornish MP colleagues to campaign to address this, and get a Cornish tick box on the census and was pleased to be able to highlight this in Strasbourg today.”
“I will continue to make the sensible argument for this change in both Parliament and in Strasbourg. Kernow bys vyken!”