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Competition: a definition of Cornwall

Graham Smith | 18:34 UK time, Saturday, 6 November 2010

There is no prize for this competition but in a shameless attempt to give the usual suspects something to comment on, I wonder if any can suggest a 21st century and Cornish version of some of George Orwell's imagery from The Lion and the Unicorn (I did warn you I was about to read it again.)

I wonder if the "nationalists" and "anti-nationalists" (I fear I've been unable to think up better labels) will find anything to agree about. Please accept that as part of the challenge.

No more than 30 words each, but you can of course submit as many comments as you like. For example, Orwell thought that England was (partly) defined by "the old maids biking to Holy Communion through the mists of the autumn morning." He also thought England was a family, with the wrong people in charge. A country of pubs, and people with bad teeth. He was rude about the ruling classes, who he thought were stupid, but not wicked like Hitler or Mussolini. I won't quote the whole essay but if you're really keen it won't hurt to read it.

Let's give it a week, then I'll put my neck on the block and rank my favourites. You can be political, poetic, romantic, geographical, historical - whatever you want. I might be able to persuade my superiors that the best entries should be read out on air. No prizes - far too much Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú paperwork for that (and no money) - but of course, it's the taking part that counts.

Comments

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  • First
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  • Comment number 1.

    Cream on first then the jam
    'c'us I'm a proper cornishman.

    How to serve a scone

  • Comment number 2.

    Cornwall: A Picasso, beautifully framed (the coast/ Tamar) with a canvass full of colour and vibrance, that you can't quite make out, or put into words that give credit.

  • Comment number 3.

    Home

  • Comment number 4.

    When I was 10 years old, my late Grandrather took me to the top of Carn Brea and told me, 'All you see is your land, they can never take it from you. You are it and it is you.'

  • Comment number 5.

    To my beloved Kernow


    As solid as rocky Carn it is
    As deep as Dozmary Pool
    As plain as the surf on the sea it is
    The love I have for you

    As fresh as new cut hay it is
    As broad as widest bay
    As true as fisherman’s compass set
    More love than I can say

    As straight as longest furrow in field
    As strong as coast winds blow
    As clear as view from Trencrom Hill
    My love for you just grows

    (c) Mike Chappell

  • Comment number 6.

    Glad to see you are back off strike Graham. Power to your elbow for your stand. Interesting now to see that an organisation in Yorkshire is forming calling for Home Rule up there. I support their call fully.

  • Comment number 7.

    Miner Jack looks out to sea and through the mist of a vivacious cobalt blue sea he hears a small trawler chugging out to sea, dark clouds encroach above.

  • Comment number 8.

    BTW - here's the Yorkshire website: interesting stuff.

  • Comment number 9.

    Dreaming of yesterdays history
    that tomorrow they may take revenge
    The Nationalist determined with their endeavours
    while the Cornish people stand by and just cringe.

  • Comment number 10.

    Many thanks for these entries - some good stuff; keep 'em coming! I had thought "Next to England, like Wales," would be an early try: T-shirt slogans also welcome.

  • Comment number 11.


    I see a stream
    Red with the Land’s blood
    Tin in it’s bones

    I see the Sea
    Blue grey
    The fisherman’s blood
    Kingly in death

    I see the clay waste
    A dry skin to the Land’s flesh
    Dazzling in the Sun’s kiln

    I see maidens
    Grey their laughter
    The sound of granite

    I hear pipes
    An empty echo in the full silence of the church
    The wooden body of the piper
    His swift hands unquiet
    The intense restlessness of the eager dead

    I hear a song
    Whispering sure harmonious words
    Purity of the tin
    Flow of the sea
    Hardness of the granite
    Incessantly turning to virile flesh

    (c) Mike Chappell

  • Comment number 12.

    "Kernow yw konna tyr orth penn Breton Veur. Kernow yw bro Geltek ha Kernewek Agan yeth."

    Cornwall is a peninsula at the end of Great Britain. Cornwall is a Celtic Country and Cornish is our language.

  • Comment number 13.

    T shirt slogan seen the other day: 'Kernow Rydh' - 'Free Cornwall'

  • Comment number 14.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 15.

    "Next to Devon.Like Somerset"

  • Comment number 16.

    Mr Chappell, lovely poems.....here's one of mine

    Saltashgaz writes on here Mr Chappell to aggrieve,
    But if you throw a stick for him I think that he may leave,
    He comes on here to insult his life is in a trough,
    cut backs are to blame for this,
    His carer has been laid off.
    When he sees this,
    round Saltash he will flounce,
    But remember he has a problem,
    too hard for me to pronounce.

  • Comment number 17.

    Searching for respite we find acidic regulation breakers, 30 is that rule, humourless Muppets seem unable to exploit English. Let’s blame the Welsh education system, for imposing Kermit on us.

  • Comment number 18.

    @Graham

    You wrote: "I wonder if the "nationalists" and "anti-nationalists" (I fear I've been unable to think up better labels)"

    Well you could always use Cornish nationalists on one side and then English and/or British state-nationalists on the other. You yourself I suspect are a British state-nationalist in that you wish to see the preservation of the UK as it is and consider you national identity to be British. Do correct me if I'm wrong. Equally we could consider you an English cultural nationalist if you promote the English county version of Cornwall's identity.

    In the new atlas for stateless nations that has just been released (in French at the moment) we have the interesting suggestion of 'positive nationalism' and 'negative nationalism'.

    Positive nationalism: A stateless nation that wishes to be recognised and respected. It is about empowerment and self-determination.

    Negative nationalism: The desire to impose on others ones own vision of the nation and national identity.

    I wrote the chapter on Cornwall for the atlas BTB.

  • Comment number 19.

    T-shirt

    GENOCIDE don’t be PARANOID

  • Comment number 20.

    "Did Trelawny live?,
    No.actually, he died.
    In his bed, aged 71,
    With not a whimper, nor a sigh."

  • Comment number 21.

    18: TheCornishDem
    I think I would describe myself as very much an internationalist, and even that might have to change should space travel become affordable within my lifetime! But I accept that there are ties that bind - immediate family, for example - and that the landscapes and memories of our formative years tend to last a very long time. For example, I'd never watched a football match until, aged 10, I was transfixed by TV coverage of the 1966 World Cup tournament. And as a result I suppose I still cheer for England in international matches, albeit with the same weary resignation that forecasts another unimaginative performance. I've lived in the same village in Cornwall since 1980 and it is most definitely "home."

  • Comment number 22.

    O failed flag of blood red cross
    Cause of many a Cornish life’s loss
    With face as white as sun bleached bones
    Despised in all good Celtic homes

    Alban, Kembry, Kernow all hope
    For freedom from the Angles yoke
    The right to determine own destiny
    No shackle of Sawsnek autocracy

  • Comment number 23.

    I have to agree with P_Trembath: home.

  • Comment number 24.

    Cornwall for Cornwall
    and never the slave
    Lets stand shoulder to shoulder
    and show we are brave

    It is in our genes we are different
    not like the rest
    Haven’t you noticed the Cornish
    always know best?

  • Comment number 25.

    Sew what you did, Graham?

    You rattled Mr Chappell's cage.

    Now we have his "poetry"

    "Despised in all good Celtic homes"

  • Comment number 26.

    @GrahamSmith

    Thanks for the reply but I'll need a few more details before I can be sure.

    You say you're an internationalist. How does this manifest in your political choices and opinions exactly? What do you think are the appropriate political structures for the UK, England and Cornwall? For you is Cornwall part of the English nation and are the people who think otherwise wrong? Perhaps these questions require a level of honesty too high for a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú journalist to be able to answer but lets hope not. Anyway answer me these and I'll tell you what kind of nationalist you are.

    There are really very few true internationalists around but I think I do quite well in that I wish for all nations that which I want for the Cornish.

    BTW in the new atlas Cornwall is described as a stateless nation. Equally it is described as a constitutional duchy administered as a county of England.

  • Comment number 27.

    "BTW in the new atlas Cornwall is described as a stateless nation. Equally it is described as a constitutional duchy administered as a county of England."

    In whose "new atlas"?

  • Comment number 28.

    "A new atlas has been produced by a Breton organisation"

    Oh, THAT "new atlas"!

  • Comment number 29.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 30.

    Now that is censorship.....'Bro Goth agan Tasow'........ can't be posted here......?

  • Comment number 31.

    Places defy definition in the abstract sense, whether it be England or Cornwall or France or Spain. Some people call it Kernow others Cernyw, Cornovaglia, Kernev Veur, Cornouailles or Cornubia. Some people see Kernow as place to go on holiday, to surf to swim and to drink. Other see it as where they grew up and their forefathers, where they work and raise their families. Some politically would like to see the people of Cornwall further assimlated into the English way of life and others quite the opposite. Without a common point to relate, there is no definition of Cornwall or to put it more eloquently 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'.

    This simply is the reason that Mr Orwell titled his piece the Lion and the Unicorn, is that nations and places have no objective definition which is why they identify with symbols. Personally I've always like the Lion and Unicorn as symbols, to me it's message on the one hand we are hard and the other we're full of it.

  • Comment number 32.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 33.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 34.

    Morning Graham for me Cornwall is like

    The last mouthful of pan fried sea bass, cooked in extra virgin olive oil, washed down with Gothic Alsace gewürztraminer wine.

  • Comment number 35.

    26, TheCornishDem:
    I have only myself to blame for some comments on this thread going wildly off topic! I will "refer up" to find out the limits where personal opinions start to defy Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú guidelines on fairness and impartiality. I'll also start a new thread to give room for comments about Cornwall's media. Meanwhile, on this thread, please stick to the task in hand - a 30-words-or-less definition of Cornwall. No-one has yet mentioned the sorts of housing estates where thousands of people live - such as Berryfields in Bodmin or the Beacon in Falmouth. Who is Cornwall's ruling elite? Is it still the rural squirearchy or a new breed of technocrats and bureaucrats in the local authorities? In matters of faith, is Cornwall now Church or Chapel? Observation of detail which a casual visitor would miss or fail completely to understand. Euchre leagues?

  • Comment number 36.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 37.

    Cornwall is a lovely place,
    Though we don’t grow many apples.
    What we grow,
    is Rowes and Rowes,
    and daft ha'porths
    Like Mike Chappell.
    :-)

  • Comment number 38.

    Pasties, beaches, Eden, sea, sun, cliff tops, happy people, long summers, Truro cathedral, Fish & Chips, moors, farms, tin mines, Humphrey Davey, Lands End, merry maidens, Minack, Tamar bridge.

  • Comment number 39.

    "..Negative nationalism: The desire to impose on others ones own vision of the nation and national identity.."

    Which is much more advantageous, than having exiles living in bunkers in Paris, imposing nationalism on the Cornish because he is home sick.

  • Comment number 40.

    Cornwall is sheer pink frilly knickers and long smooth legs leading to pair of olive green wellingtons.

  • Comment number 41.

    Cornish nationalism is like using humpty dumpty to make Custard

  • Comment number 42.

    @Rialobran, you talk of censorship, the comment I made regarding your post, partially re-posted below, was censored due to it not all of it being in English.

    Rialobran wrote:-
    "Now that is censorship.....'*** **** **** '........ can't be posted here......?"
    House Rules, everything has to be written in English.
    Go stand in the corner, with the "Cornish not" around your neck!

    And in another thread, Graham Smith talks of Irony!
    Looks like I'll be joining you in the corner, "Cornish not" and all.

  • Comment number 43.

    Graham Smith wrote:
    In matters of faith, is Cornwall now Church or Chapel?

    A more personal thing I think Graham

    T- Shirt slogan



  • Comment number 44.

    Mary has her degree, asks "fries with that?" Bright Cornish lass told to stay in Kernow and give birth; she wants more, so saves for a ticket and accommodation up-country

  • Comment number 45.

    The Celtic Nation and Duchy Of Cornwall - a land next to England, like Scotland and Wales, whose language is redacted and denied expression by the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú.

  • Comment number 46.

    Come now graham give him the award nobody reading the forum would have guessed he would say that, what it lacks in originality it also lacks in passion and delivery, its like X factor all over again

  • Comment number 47.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 48.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 49.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 50.

    Graham Smith wrote:-
    "I wonder if the "nationalists" and "anti-nationalists" (I fear I've been unable to think up better labels) will find anything to agree about."

    I fear that the above few posts would indicate that you wonder in vane.

    Graham Smith wrote:-
    "Please accept that as part of the challenge."

  • Comment number 51.

    Haha, looks like it's become a break the House rules contest.....and nationalist bashing!!

  • Comment number 52.

    Rialobran I think post 43 was far from bashing anything or anyone, it had been left up for sometime.

    The other postings I take your word for it.

  • Comment number 53.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 54.

    House Rules, everything has to be written in English.....so what constitutes English? My last post was written in Anglo-Saxon, why has it been taken down Mr/Mrs/Miss Moderator? It was not defamatory, unlike many posts here, it was simply written in the language of the rules, English.

  • Comment number 55.

    The Tin Miners Vision

    A tin miners life was treacherous and most times grim
    working deep underground digging out the tin
    Just earning enough that could be called their own
    the tin miners worked their fingers to the bone
    With faith that was never ending guiding each step of the way
    deep into the bowels of the darkness, shutting out the light of day
    Families brought up the Christian way, like the Cornish truly know how
    determined and steadfast with hands firmly at the plough
    The light that gives us true vision can only come from deep within
    when our true and only Saviour cleanses us, from all our worldly sin.

    © YC

  • Comment number 56.

    And the Duke takes double taxes from our sweat, our blood and our tin.

  • Comment number 57.

    Jez 8 left for work at 5am with sister and father to shovel his life away
    Walking past the tombstones of associates
    Talked of being 'Cousin Jacks', increasing the pay

  • Comment number 58.

    One Cornwall at one with the world and not cut adrift to appease the mutinous 10

  • Comment number 59.

    Boarded shops and flood systems
    Council estates and old people's homes
    God gave you a brain now bloody go and use it
    Rise from the slums to a pioneering expectations

  • Comment number 60.

    Seeing as there is no tin produced in Cornwall calmer Boot, and seeing as the levies imposed by the duke ended centuries ago, your view of Cornwall is one you have never seen.

    Mind you without the duke you'd have no duchy, so are you, or are you not, willing to support your duke, Carbon Team?

  • Comment number 61.

    Battered by time, holiday homes, OAP's and Caravans
    An artist's revelation
    All donations given to Emmet Eden kingdom
    Neither nation nor Duchy
    But a chocolate box quickly forgotten

  • Comment number 62.

    Andrew Jacks wrote:-
    "One Cornwall at one with the world and not cut adrift to appease the mutinous 10"
    One Cornwall, at one with the world, standing proud and equal to all. Not submerged in a grey uniform "one size fits all" culture and ethnicity to please the small number, and small minded, Kernowphobes.

  • Comment number 63.

    Sad, sort of sums up you anti - nats, very sad.

  • Comment number 64.

    With Irish kilt and Scottish pipe,
    A bit of Welsh and Celtic hype.
    Their tears for what might have been,
    Before a British Empire, English Queen.

  • Comment number 65.

    Slimslad wrote:-
    "..........English Queen."
    Interesting, the Queen, current, is:-
    Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
    No mention of England or English there.
    Did you mean British Queen, or were you referring to a different Queen?

    Victoria?
    Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India.
    No mention of England or English there either.

    Queen Anne?
    After 1707:- Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.
    No mention of England or English there either.
    Ahh, but before 1707:- Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.
    So, you must have been referring to a Queen 300 odd years ago, or maybe one before that?

    Elizabeth 1?
    By the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.

    Mary 1?
    Queen of England, Spain, France, Jerusalem, both the Sicilies and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol.

    Surely not Lady Jane Grey?
    Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England and of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head

    Or perhaps your going back to 1141 and the Empress Matilda?
    Lady of the English.

    Just wondering.

  • Comment number 66.

    Athelstan was quite a bloke,
    Had all England under yoke,
    Until he reached the Tamar's shore,
    Then a dragon said, "No More"!

  • Comment number 67.

    Mr Trembath: I think he meant to write 'Ethnically Trans-European Queen'
    Slimslad: Not a bad ditty, sounds a bit Nationalist for you though

  • Comment number 68.

    'Athelstan was quite a bloke,
    Had all England under a yoke,
    Until he reached the Tamar's shore,
    Then a dragon said, "No More"!'

    One of the best there so far, Slimslad.
    And one of the less predictable, too.

    That Celtic Voodoo may be working.

    You may even have (with a bit more work) the beginnings of a children's book there!

    Kernewek on the left page - English on the right.

  • Comment number 69.

    I thought it was quite subtle.

    What with dragons being mythical, just like much of Cornwall's history.

  • Comment number 70.

    I look around the Cornwall I love
    A joyful society
    On the internet
    I see radicals with nothing better to do
    To Emmet's everywhere
    Cornwall is a serene English Shire

  • Comment number 71.

    A County,Duchy, perhaps a Nation?,
    All this causes aggravation.
    Tearing paper, no more pasties,
    Cursing all those English Nazis.
    Wishing for what might have been,
    They stamp their feet, and scweem and scweem!

  • Comment number 72.

    I counted 33 slim perhaps they use undecimal base 11 up north, down here we still use our fingers, so the rule is two cousins fingers plus your own

  • Comment number 73.

    Red sunset sets into the west
    White candle burning bright deep into the night
    Blue skies viewed from Chappel cliff
    As we wind down into Gorran haven
    My Cornish heaven

  • Comment number 74.

    I'm not sure what Orwell would have made of all these limericks but they make me chuckle! Keep 'em coming - deadline 1pm on Sunday, results on Monday.

  • Comment number 75.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 76.

    Hesitantly Penberthy approaches Tamar Customs, in his Orange P reg Rover 420 turbo diesel delight, passport in hand, Kernow flag gleams bright the last thing to leave the duchy tonight

  • Comment number 77.

    Which are the limericks, Mr Smith?

    What would Orwell have made of this one :

    'A 'Cornwall' 'reporter' called Smith
    Developed a worrying lithp
    While spouting on air
    He lost some more hair
    The mike shorted and the retht wath pure blith.' ?

    Will that do?

  • Comment number 78.

    I'm sure Orwell would have been amused, AC, thank you - I should have made it clear that it's not just the limericks which make me chuckle, but I also welcome those thought-provoking entries which stick more closely to the style of Orwell's "The Lion & The Unicorn." As I said, keep 'em coming!

  • Comment number 79.

    There was an young man from Redruth,
    Who thought English was very uncouth.
    So he learnt some Brethonic,
    'Though his accent was chronic.
    And talks to himself, that's the truth.

  • Comment number 80.

    There was a young man christened Blair,
    Who wondered if life was that fair.
    Changed his name to George O.
    Wrote a book we all know.
    That showed that he really did care.

  • Comment number 81.

    The tourist trade the life blood
    pumping through Cornish vein
    seed sown on departure of the
    Paddington to Penzance train.

  • Comment number 82.

    Emmet's caravans blocks Penberthy's path in Kernow next to Englandshires. Tourist can't hurt him he carries the MCR1 gene. Stannaries and Gorsedd talk in alien tongues of conspiracy from Padstein.

  • Comment number 83.

    There was another wordsmith called Blair
    Who came up through the ranks by wind fair
    When he got into position
    We all know the transition
    People lie dead here, there and over there.

  • Comment number 84.

    Graham Smith had an idea
    To stop people talking diarrhea
    He set them Comp
    With great pomp
    The nats went stomp stomp

  • Comment number 85.

    Tom, siestas within a derelict fish market, as the doors to the seaman's mission open time for a wash, food, respect and lessons in Cornish costing £650 a throw

  • Comment number 86.

    From Gunnislake to Lands End
    All non-nats are round the bend
    They pontificate
    about Britain Great
    But TRUE Cornishmen they do offend

  • Comment number 87.

    There was an old man had a gene,
    To tell whom his ancestors had been.
    When he found with a shock
    They were not Welsh or Jock.
    The Cornishman moved to Spain(?)

  • Comment number 88.

    'Speen' has greater historical resonance:
    british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1644-second-newbury.htm

  • Comment number 89.

    And, quite importantly for a limerick to work Slimslad - it rhymes.

  • Comment number 90.

    There was an Englishman in the West,
    Who wore a union flag on his vest;
    When they said, 'It doesn't fit!'
    He replied, 'I know I'm a tit!'
    That Englishman with his chest

  • Comment number 91.

    Nationalists offer what they think is best
    without a crumb to invest
    They live in the past and think it will last
    to hell with us and all the rest.

  • Comment number 92.

    There was an old man from Penzance,
    Whose Limericks hadn't a chance.
    His name Rialobran,
    Whose lines didn't scan.
    What a laugh,what a fool, what a dance.

  • Comment number 93.

    'There was an old man had a gene,
    To tell whom his ancestors had been.
    When he found with a shock
    They were not Welsh or Jock.
    The Cornishman moved to Spain'
    ©'Slimslad' 2010

  • Comment number 94.

    Less of the old from Penzance
    And your Limericks leave me askance
    I haven't the time
    for a scanning rhyme
    So stick that in your pipe and and smoke it.......

  • Comment number 95.

    Youngcornwall, Slimslad and Jacks
    As close as ferrets in a sack
    Their heads pop out
    And look about
    Sniffing out their next 'nats' attack.

  • Comment number 96.

    Looking out from the range at tregantle fort
    Where so many battles have been fought
    To Looe island a paradise resort
    Where me and my children cavort
    Beauty in an abstract thought

  • Comment number 97.

    Isn't Looe primarily a year round working fishing port, Tregantle?

    How many battles have been fought at Tregantle Fort?

  • Comment number 98.

    AccurateChronometer your dismal attempts to attack any comment not from a nationalist is truly miserable and deeming to the Cornish movement, even I have heard of Looe island, I think sisters saved up and bought it, I was going to say it is good to see you have found a sense of humour (93) but as usual the bitterness rears its ugly head, Peter just ignore AC and let's put it down to poetic license.

  • Comment number 99.

    Demeaning not deeming apologies. AC has this affect on most who read his rabid comments

  • Comment number 100.

    As the sun sets over C24,
    We lesser mortals can only stand in the long shadows,
    In wonder, at the mythical talents of these Aged Ones.
    Inheritors of Jennor, and some other blokes,
    Nobody has heard of.

Ìý

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