Cornwall, Some Years On.

Back in 2015 - still not that long ago to my mind - the RSGB waded into what became a political farce, about which I was reminded this morning on reading The Guardian, and its piece on widening celebration of Cornish identity in the region. 

The issue all those years ago? The regional secondary locator (RSL) that OFCOM had decided to grant, on a permanent basis, to Cornwall (Kernow in Cornish, hence the 'K').

Source of hostility by the RSGB in 2015...

This came about as a result, in 2014, of the Cornish being granted National Minority Status, recognised by the UK Government, under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. This brought them into line with the Scots, Welsh and Irish, who had enjoyed such recognition from a much earlier point.

Of course, the bigwigs at the RSGB had other ideas. They issued public announcements of support, whilst rabidly opposing it from the very outset, as soon as they thought they were behind closed doors in meetings with OFCOM.

OFCOM itself added, inevitably, to the mess. It formally involved Cornish MPs by telling them all about the new, permanent 'K for Cornwall' callsign, only to withdraw the whole thing, making it a mere temporary issue, ultimately negotiated to last a year.

The reason for the change of heart at OFCOM?  It was never explicitly said, but minutes obtained under FoIA at the time revealed pressure from the RSGB, to which OFCOM seemed unreasonably willing to bow. 

The RSGB raised the entirely specious spectre with OFCOM that, if Cornwall got its own, permanent RSL, then the country - Lord help us all - could be faced with "wide repercussions" - angry mobs from all over the UK, shaking their pointy antenna sticks at the government and threatening regime change and perhaps the collapse of global civilisation itself. The RSGB, desperately, added that operators across the world would be "confused" by the K RSL. Radio operators are not known for being confused by callsigns and geography.

The Guardian article today contains a beautiful line that anyone who is from one of the National Minorities will strongly identify with and understand: "I'm Cornish. I'm definitely not English". To the English ear, this sounds like a declaration of war; that having a minority identity means you are saying you hate the English. Which is, of course (usually), utter bilge.

Why did the RSGB react in this way, advancing ridiculous and clearly disingenuous arguments to overturn what OFCOM - a government agency - had already decided?  Seasoned critics opined, perhaps not unreasonably, that it was concern from within the ranks of the obsessive contesters, including from the within the ranks of the (non-Cornish) Board, that led them to believe they would be at some disadvantage in their pointless point-gathering of a weekend. Think about it: a hobby society, unaccountable to anyone, somehow forcing UK official policy to be changed, making a fool of OFCOM and its decision.

To the wider world, it was a non-story. To the Cornish and those in the UK who are not English, it was another typical English dirty trick, reminding us all of how petty, oppressive and loathsome they can be. Rather than celebrate Celtic cultures - here way, way before England and English ever existed - the English-centric RSGB and its black-suit-(but no black Board members)-and-tie ways decided to have a tantrum and break everything. They were clearly very satisfied with it all.

The Guardian today, celebrating growing Cornish pride, simply reminds us how disgracefully out-of-step with UK cultural history the RSGB was and, no doubt, still is. A word commonly used to describe such prejudiced responses to issues like the RSGB exhibited towards Cornwall is: 'gammon'.

If you're really bored, you can trawl through my blog to find the several posts I wrote at the time. If you're only mildly interested, you can just read my letter to the then Managing Director, or this summary from a bit earlier. Whilst it's a while ago now, it does tell you a lot about our so-called representative body, the Board of which today still contains some of those around at the time.