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League General Secretary, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, attended a meeting of the Kernow Branch earlier this week (part of a series of visits to various Celtic countries including Wales, Kernow and Brittany) in an attempt to keep up to date with developments in what is proving to be one of the most dynamic branches within the League in recent years.
The Kernow Branch has continued to gain in strength over the last year as a consequence of several well thought out campaigns and a substantial increase in media coverage. Branch Secretary, Mike Chappell, has also been instrumental in the development of the Branch and has succeeded in bringing together an active group of new and familiar campaigners of all ages.
The political and cultural climate in Cornwall in recent months has been interesting to say the least. Cornish language activists have been given an end of summer deadline to decide on a single spelling system for the language, Cornwall's County Council Executives are determined to push ahead with an application for unitary authority status despite over 80 % of the Cornish public opposing the change, the South West Assembly is stealthily making overt attempts to submerge Cornwall into an artificial West Country culture/identity and is being fully baked up by the media. In addition to this the housing crisis in Cornwall has become so acute that the general publics are being increasing politicised and are openly venting their frustration by organising petitions, marches and calling for a cull on second homes.
Relating to the housing issue, an organisation, calling itself the Cornish National Liberation Army (CNLA), last month issued a public threat against people who they claim have been responsible for pushing house prices up. The Celtic League predicted, in these pages, that the reaction of the police to the threat, with the setting up of a special task force, was over the top and that the organisation was likely to be insignificant. However, once again the League's predictions have proved accurate, but ironically members of the branch have been implicated, with the arrest of members, in what seems to be a deliberate targeting by the police. Last week a member from Padstow was arrested following a search of his house and copies of League papers seized as a result of a call he had made to Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen, asking questions about the restaurants Cornish credentials.
Previously, Jack Bolitho, Deputy Chair of the Branch, was also questioned by police and a subsequent media hunt followed. Mr Bolitho took the brunt of a fabricated interview in The Sunday Times interview, which the League has responded to with a letter to the Press Complaints Commission. As a result of to the Times article Mr Bolitho has been continually hounded by the press and television channels and the police have continued to be over enthusiastic in following up any leads relating to him. One such event included a massive over reaction this week with police helicopters and armed police swooping on the house of one of Jack Bolitho's relatives, who had telephoned the authorities about a completely unrelated domestic disturbance.
Nevertheless, the Kernow Branch is continuing to expand and several interesting campaigns are being pursued, including instigating the setting up of a Cornish housing campaign group based along the lines of Cymuned in Wales, who the Branch have been in close contact with.
With the Kernow Branch taking an obvious lead lately, attention and onus will no doubt fall on the other Branches of the League to follow suit.
(This article for Celtic News compiled by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
18/07/07
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