League Hit the Headlines
A campaign by the Kernow branch of the League hit headlines before Xmas following a letter they sent to the UK race commission.
The news coverage is the best penetration of the mass media the League has achieved since the military monitoring campaigns of the 1980/90s and it demonstrates that National branches (with effort) can project their message on campaign issues.
Former branch secretary Iwan LeMoine sent the letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) asking for their support in tackling derogatory comments about the Cornish found in the media. Mr LeMoine, who is now the Branch deputy chair, also pointed out to the EHRC that the branch receives many complaints from the Cornish public about racial discrimination against them as part of their everyday lives. With limited resources Mr LeMoine requested that the EHRC or the Cornwall Race Equality Council (CREC) should be helping to tackle the issue.
As a result of the letter, Mr LeMoine and other members of the branch were contacted by the press and numerous articles have appeared in a variety of newspapers over the last week, with the vast majority being supportive of the matter. Mr LeMoine also did an interview with Pirate FM radio station on the day the news broke.
At the 2009 annual general meeting of the League in Kernow the following resolution was adopted:
"That the Celtic League utterly condemns the frequency used description of Cornish nationals as `inbred' amongst other insulting phrases both in the media and on the internet and elsewhere, and calls upon the Equality and Human Rights Commission as well as the Council for Racial Equality in Cornwall to join us in taking action to remedy the ongoing insult."
Below is a list of links to some of the newspapers, in which articles appeared:
Daily Star (UK)
Daily Mail (UK)
(voir le site) ion-media-groups-calling-Cornish-inbred.html
Metro News (UK)
Western Morning News (Cornwall)
(voir le site) mments/article-1633728-detail/article.html
West Briton (Cornwall)
(voir le site) nts/article-1633728-detail/article.html
Imperial College student website (London)
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
02/01/10
■