I was using Google to search for reactions to Adam Price's decision to resign from Westminster at the next election, and came across the Pink Paper's report.
The Pink Paper on line edition has a related story link, headlined Peter Tatchell calls for a Cornwall Parliament. I assume that the link is Celtic nationalism. The story is quite old now, dating from August 7th, but it's new to me, I wasn't aware of it before stumbling upon it today.
Gay campaigner and Green Party parliamentary candidate Peter Tatchell has compared the fight for LGBT rights with the little-known movement for self-rule for Cornwall.
Both the campaigns for gay rights and Cornish rights involve challenging injustice," he said ahead of Cornwall Pride tomorrow.
They are different, but they share the same commitment to extending democratic freedoms and human rights.
Mr Tatchell said he would be carrying both a rainbow flag and the Cornish national flag at the event as well as a placard reading:
"End ban on gay marriage."
Cornwall has a population of just 531,000, but has historically been recognised as one of the "Celtic nations."
Mr Tatchell, the Green Party candidate at the next election in the Oxford East constituency, said he advocated a "Scottish-style Cornish parliament (that) would bring power closer to the people and ensure a stronger focus on the needs and interests of Cornwall."
I hadn't realised that Mr Tatchell was now a leading Green. I had always thought of him as the Labour Candidate in the Bermondsy by-election in one of the most prejudicial campaigns in modern history. This safe Labour seat was lost to the Liberal Democrats and elected Simon Hughes The Only Gay from Colwyn Bay, as he was once called, after a particularly homotrepid campaign.
Mt Tatchell apparently has a moderate chance of being elected as one of the first Green Westminster MP's in next year's elections. I wish him well and I hope that he wins.
Peter Tatchell's support for Cornish self-determination is in line with the Green's attitudes towards Scottish independence. The Scottish Green party is an independent part, that gives some support to the principal of independence for Scotland
It appears that the Greens support self determination for Cornwall and Scotland, but where do they stand in relation to Welsh self determination?
Why is the Green Party in Wales an EnglandandWales organisation, rather than a separate party similar to the Scottish Party?
Why does the Green movement in Wales portray an image of "Good life" colonisation by hippies, interested in preserving everything other than the culture, values and national identity of Wales?
The latest Victory by the eco movement in Wales was to gain planning permission for a Lammas Village in Glandwr. Lammas, being the Anglo Saxon Feast of the Harvest Crop. Celebrated a full 10 weeks before the traditional Welsh Diolchgarwch am y Cynhaeaf (Harvest Thanksgiving).
Whatever the rights or wrongs of the Glandwr development, it would have taken 2 seconds of sensitivity and 5 minutes of research to call the plan Pentre Diolchgarwch rather than the Anglo Saxon's who couldn't give an F*** about Wales Village (which is what Lammas in Wales means)!
Without such sensitivity, the Green cause will never flourish in Wales
Yeh, Peter Tatchell is great now he's left Labour. When the eulogies are spoken, we should all remember that St Michael Foot put the knife into him in Bermondsey.
ReplyDeleteOn the Greens, you're right. They have a bizarre England & Wales organisation. They mostly seem to be an amalgam of Labour retreads (unionists) and un-Welsh Anglos. You will recall that this lot destroyed the Plaid-Green alliance which got their first joint UK MP in Ceredigion. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
I think reality is that with the former work of Cynog Dafis and the present work of Jill Evans, the Green cause in Wales is strongly represented by Plaid. See what George Monbiot says. Mind you, this precious heritage -and votes - must must be guarded. The present attitude of Ieuan Wyn Jones and others on nuclear power is a strategic error.
This kind of mirrors my thinking on the Lammas development. How arrogant is it to turn up on the doorstep of an existing community, tell them that the intention is to set up something far more progressive - but separate. Anyone with an ounce of nous would expect opposition.
ReplyDeleteThere's something fundamentally negative and defeatist about Lammas. It mirrors the old 60s counterculture attitude of "turn up, tune in, drop out". Rather than working within an existing society and community, these people prefer to separate themselves off from the rest of society with these so-called "radical" new developments. In reality though, Lammas is no different really to Teepee Valley in Sir Gar, which has been around since the 60s/70s.
My understanding is that any newcomers to the small and limited clique that make up Lammas will have to be "vetted" by a committee of some kind. The whole thing just smacks of elitism and will just reinforce the impression in the minds of mainstream society that "green" issues are the preserve of eccentrics and hippies, not real people.
Although the Greens don't have a manifesto position on independence for Wales, it does seem that they are in favour of it. This is what their lead candidate for South Wales West, Rhodri Griffiths, said on it (and the matter of an "EnglandandWales" party) just before the 2007 election:
ReplyDeletehttp://annibyniaeth.blogspot.com/2007/04/y-blaid-werdd-o-blaid-annibyniaeth-i.html
The first Harvest Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1843, so it is hardly traditional, nor is it Welsh, tho' as it was the invention of that proto-Cornish Nationalist (and splendid eccentric), the Reverend R.S. Hawker, it does have a certain "Celtic" flavour.
ReplyDeleteLammas is an Anglo-Saxon word, but the celebration itself is probably the same as Lughnasadh (Calan Awst).
[People forget that there was much common ground between (so-called) "Anglo-Saxon" and "Celtic" culture in the early Mediaeval Period, just as they overlook the considerable differences between the Brythonic and Gaelic "Celts".]
i know the people at lammas well. it's a dream come true. They do have eco lifestyles. One of the fellas has a little bottled water co. selling mineral h20 from the preseli mountains there good people MOF
ReplyDeleteoh i forgot, the main lady is irish by birth, not anglo-sax
ReplyDelete