I am Cornish and proud (as many of the Cornish are) and today I was pleased to see Cornwall gain recognition as a distinct Celtic fringe of Britain. I think it's good to be proud of where you are from, it's a uniting factor that can create cohesive communities - if it's not taken to the level of feeling 'superior'.
I am not a nationalist - I am also proud to be British and proud to be European (vote on the 22nd everybody). I don't believe that Cornwall should be its own country, and I feel particularly uncomfortable with the 'we are descended from celts' theme - while your heritage is interesting on a personal level, race-informed politics is dangerous ground.
However, we do have alot of Celtic culture - and it's great. My mum has brought me up around lots of folk music (thanks mum) much of which is in the Cornish language. If you ever give me a couple beers maybe you'll be lucky enough to get a rendition ;) Further to that my granny (who is 93 this week!) makes Cornish tartan by hand and my grandpa was a bard of the Cornish Gorsedh (protector of the Cornish dialect) - they were interviewing them today on BBC for the news articles which was so lovely to see, my grandpa would have been over the moon.
This is all on top of being one the most beautiful places in country which has made it a great tourist attraction. What is lesser known, however, is that Cornwall is the poorest county in England with incredibly low salaries (especially if you take Truro out the equation) - the deprivation being to the extent that it qualified for £300 million in Objective One funding by the EU.
I am happy that we have gained some recognition from the EU, not because we are 'special' or 'better' or 'too proud' but because Cornwall has a unique culture mirroring that of some of the other Celtic states, a financial situation that needs attention and quite frankly, cause its a bloody awesome place. Kernow Bys Vyken.
