Talk:Cornwall/Archive 3
Refactored: Various commentators have made comments about the status of Cornwall. In summary, some see Cornwall as an integral part of England / United Kingdom; others don't. sjc
Peninsula(r) - sorry about that, English is rapidly becoming my third language.sjc
Are we sure about the ancient tin? I've seen claims that the ancient tin mines were actually in the Scilly Islands. Vicki Rosenzweig
Vicki, there is no real proof one way or the other, but certainly it would have been easier for the traders to have found Cornwall than the Scillies, given the uncertainties of navigation in those times... sjc
GrahamN, Cornwall is NOT in England; we have brokered (after much debate) a coherent form of words which is acceptable to most of the players in this debate. This IS not negotiable and I do not propose to waste time going over this ground again. Changes to this page will be reverted with extreme prejudice. user:sjc
Hi, sjc.
I'm sorry if I trod on your toes.
You are absolutely right. Cornwall is not in England. And I never said it was. To say that Cornwall is "a county of England" is not to say that Cornwall is in England. Corsica is a département of France, but it is clearly not in France.
As it happens, I am quarter Cornish (my maternal grandfather came from the Lizard), and I have a good deal of sympathy with ambitions of the Cornish to gain independence from England. But in the interests of producing a good encyclopaedia article, I think we should amend the sentence Cornwall … is a duchy and (administratively speaking) the southernmost county of Great Britain, for two reasons.
Firstly, the Channel Islands are further south than Cornwall, and are arguably part of Great Britain.
Secondly, the phrase "County of Great Britain" is meaningless. The United Kingdom is a union of a variety of countries, principalities, bailiwicks, provinces and such, some within Great Britain and some outside it. Some of these territories are divided into counties. England has counties, Scotland has counties, Wales has counties, Northern Ireland has counties, but "Great Britain" does not have counties.
Please go to the site www.cornwall.gov.uk It is the web-site of Cornwall County Council. I believe this to be a real institution. It is not merely a front for a Cornish Government, designed to fool the English. You may wish that Cornwall was not administered as "a county of England" (and I would agree with you), but saying that it is not so doesn't change the fact that it is so. In fact it is likely to be counter-productive. Pretending that an injustice doesn't exist is not a particulary sharp way to proceed if you want to see the injustice remedied.
May I respectfully suggest the following revision:
Cornwall … is a region at the extreme South-West of Great Britain. Although technically a duchy and not part of England, currently it is administered exactly as if it were an English county.
GrahamN 22:54 Sep 6, 2002 (UCT)