News from Celtic Press
A new Cornish pressure group gained its first major campaign success recently by persuading the Cornwall tourist board to drop all use of the word 'county' from its website when referring to Cornwall.
Head of Visit Cornwall (the organisation charged with promoting Cornwall), Malcolm Bell, decided to comply with demands by 'Kernow Calling' to drop the word 'county' from its website and refer to Cornwall as Celtic wherever possible. In an email to Kernow Calling founders, Jack Bolitho and Chris Power, following a meeting the pair had with the tourism boss, Mr Bell wrote:
We finalised the revised about Cornwall section on vc.com on Tuesday and all references to county will be removed and an increased emphasis on Cornish, Celtic heritage, industrial legacy and the Cornish language etc. It should be all up on the site by the middle of next week.
In addition, I have briefed the marketing and communication guys that the term county should no longer be used and instead and the terms Cornwall, Cornish, Duchy and region will be used in all or comms and England references should be avoided and only used if we have to.
Mr Bell told the BBC:
It satisfies the people who get annoyed with the word county, but most won't actually notice it so it's just a way of moving forward, it's just being sensitive.
It's just working on that difference that Cornwall has got and it has got a different culture, a different history which actually helps us to market the county.
However, Mr Bell said that Visit Cornwall would never deny we're a county and deny that we're actually part of England. Mebyon Kernow Councillor Loveday Jenkin though disagreed, adding that Cornwall is not a county of England, even though it is administered as such, and Duchy should be used.
When asked about the change, parent organisation Visit England described it as a 'good thing'.
'Kernow Calling' was set up as a campaign group on Facebook in 2012.
At its 2006 AGM in Breizh/Brittany the Celtic League passed a resolution calling for the media to stop calling Cornwall an English county. The full text of the resolution can be found below:
This AGM calls upon the UK television and radio companies to ensure that Cornwall is not erroneously referred to as an English county, but rather recognise its distinct status and Celtic identity.
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Rhisiart Tal-e-bot
General Secretary,
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ISSUED BY THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE
10/08/12
The Celtic League has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It works to promote cooperation between these countries and campaigns on a broad range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, monitors all military activity and focuses on socio-economic issues.
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