Why we shouldn't support Cornwall's independence movement...

A Cornish nationalist has told us point blank that we "should support Cornish independence". We disagree. We've been bombarded by tales of the area's "Celticness", the awful past actions of the English, and other things.

But as the "Celtic" thing is actually quite recent, and the true impact of Celtic genetic material in the UK is non-existent (indeed, it is quite a nebulous term, first applied in the UK by Welsh Nationalist Edward Lhuyd to a group of languages, not an ethnicity or tribe), we don't think that this is grounds for supporting independence for Cornwall.

Nope, we don't need to encourage such myths about ancient white tribes - the UK is a history of repeated new arrivals and admixtures, not some pure ancient ethnicity.

And the "we have more right here than anybody else - we've been here much longer than you," ethos.

We've read quite a lot from "Celtic" nationalists which smacks of anti-English - and other - bigotry.

We don't want to bolster that.

What we should be doing, in our very humble opinion, is to support those in Cornwall who would like a referendum on the matter.

It's up to the people there to decide. Nobody else.

And it should be their RIGHT to decide if they wish to become a free standing country.

But from that point they are a free standing country. Nationalism built on one-sided bile and racism should not be sponsored by people in England.

Anything else on the part of the rest of England is sticky beaking - and supporting something which contains elements many of us don't fully understand.

And which also contains elements some of us find disturbing - and appears to be relentlessly hostile and uncaring regarding our efforts to get a fairer deal for England as a nation.