Support For A Cornish Assembly
Cornwall County Council's Feb 2003 MORI poll showed 55% in favour of an elected, fully devolved regional assembly for Cornwall and 13% against. (Previous result :46% in favour in 2002.
The campaign had the support of all five Cornish Lib Dem MPs, Mebyon Kernow, and Cornwall Council.
Lord Whitty, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, in the House of Lords, recognised that Cornwall had a "special case" for devolution. and on a visit to Cornwall Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said "Cornwall has the strongest regional identity in the UK."
In October 2007 Lib Dem MP Andrew George stated in a press release, "Just because the Government has approached the whole Regional Devolution agenda in entirely the wrong way, does not mean to say that the project itself should be ditched. If Scotland is benefiting from devolution then Cornwall should learn from this and increase the intensity of its own campaign for devolution to a Cornish Assembly."
In December 2011, Welsh MP Jonathan Edwards submitted a Early Day Motion requesting a Cornish Assembley. The bid was sponsored by Cornish MPs Dan Rogerson and Andrew George, as well as Welsh MPs Elfyn Llwyd and Hywel Williams and English MP John McDonnell (politician). So far, the Motion has been signed by Labour, Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru MPs.
In February 2012, Eden Project founder Tim Smit added his support for a Cornish Assembly in an interview with BBC Spotlight. He hopes that greater devolution of powers and control of finances to Cornwall would aid in the development of green and other innovative technologies by Cornish companies.
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