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journal of liberal democrat history 22: spring 199921
 Yet the Duchy has not been immune to de-velopments elsewhere in the Celtic fringe. Al-though Mebyon Kernow (MK), the principalnationalist party, is effectively marginalised bythe current electoral system, regional discon-tent has been the catalyst for political devel-opments in Cornwall throughout this century.Moreover, the Liberal Party has been the mainbeneficiary of this process. This article willtherefore focus on the historical links betweenLiberalism and the Celtic-Cornish movement,noting the impact of nationalist ideas on theLiberals and discussing the electoral failure of MK since

, before concluding with a brief look at the current relationship between MKand the Liberal Democrats.
The formative years
The history of modem Cornish nationalism canbe traced back to the end of the nineteenth cen-tury. Following the Liberal split of 

over the question of home rule for Ireland, Gladstoneand his supporters decided to make the issueappear more relevant to mainland Britain by ad-vocating a federal system of government: ‘homerule all round’. Although Coweth as Kelto-Kernuak (the Celtic-Cornish Society) operatedon a non-political basis, the Cornish Liberalsused the cultural themes raised by this organi-sation for political purposes. Thus, the cause of Irish home rule was defended on pan-Celticgrounds, while some Liberal activists echoedtheir counterparts in Wales by calling for thedisestablishment of the Anglican Church inCornwall. When Winston Churchill proposedthe creation of regional legislatures for Englandin

, the editor of a local Liberal newspaper called for domestic self-government:‘There is another Home Rule movement onthe horizon. Self-government for Cornwall willbe the next move …. The Metropolis is com-ing to mean everything, and all the provincesapproximate towards the fashion of the centre…. We think this is much to be deplored, andwe do not see why Cornwall should not joinin the ‘Regionalist’ movement which is striv-ing in various parts of Western Europe to re-vive local patriotism.’
 Yet the outbreak of the First World War re-moved those conditions which had allowedthese ideas to flourish. This was crucial sincethe debate over devolution had not developedsufficiently to make a lasting impact on partypolitics. Nevertheless, the experience of theinter-war period was to ensure that the po-tential for regionalist discontent was to remain.While Labour’s electoral breakthrough led tothe creation of a class-based political system,the Liberals remained entrenched as the mainalternative to the Conservatives in Cornwall.
Devolution for theDuchy 
The Liberal Party and the Nationalist Movement in Cornwall
Garry Tregidga 
examines the historical links between Liberalism andnationalists in Cornwall.
There is a tendency for Cornish nationalism to beeither ignored or ridiculed in studies of ethno-regionalism. The absence of a major nationalist partyon the lines of Scotland or Wales, combined withthe conventional view that Cornwall is just part of a vague and artificial region of the south-west,centred on Bristol, ensures that this attitude is notreally surprising.
 
journal of liberal democrat history 22: spring 199922
Radical politics was still based on thetraditional agenda of religious non-conformity, while Liberalism waspresented as the anti-metropolitanalternative to the new Labour-Con-servative alignment at Westminster.This left the Liberals well placed totake advantage of the emergence of political nationalism after the Sec-ond World War.
Mebyon Kernow:pressure group topolitical party
The formation of Mebyon Kernow(Sons of Cornwall) in May

marked an official change of direc-tion for the Cornish movement, sincethis was the first organisation publiclyto support devolution. Its initial strat-egy was to operate as a pressure group,working with other organisations toprotect the interests of the region, andproducing policy documents on sub- jects ranging from local governmentreform to the need for a universityin Cornwall. Membership remainedrelatively low until the

s, whenpublic concern over a series of issues,from rural depopulation to the threatof territorial expansion from Ply-mouth, led to a dramatic rise in sup-port. By

, when MK contestedits first parliamentary election, themovement had a total membershipof over 
,

.
Although MK attracted supportacross the political spectrum, theLiberal Party was its main ally. Thiswas demonstrated only a few monthsafter the creation of the group, whensenior Liberal figures like John Footsupported home rule on the groundsthat Cornwall was a ‘separate nation’,while it was only the Liberal Partywhich supported devolution in the

election.
The revival of Cor-nish Liberalism in the late

s re-flected widespread concern over theweak state of the local economy, andthe activities of MK reinforced theparty’s claims that Cornwall was be-ing ignored by central government.But the Liberals also accepted theconstitutional objectives of the Cor-nish movement. Peter Bessell and John Pardoe, the MPs for Bodminand North Cornwall, were membersof MK, and in

they declaredthat the ‘Cornish people have thesame right to control their country,its economy and its political future,as the other Celtic peoples of Scot-land and Wales’.
Cornish nationalismsince 1970: failureand potential
 Yet this Liberal/MK nexus was un-dermined by the decision of the na-tionalists to enter the electoral arena.The byelection successes of PlaidCymru and the SNP in the late

s, combined with growing sup-port for MK in local governmentelections, encouraged the group toembrace a new role as a politicalparty. In

MK contested the par-liamentary constituency of Falmouth& Camborne, though the party at-tracted less than a thousand votes. By

, however, there were indica-tions that this new strategy was start-ing to succeed. In the election of that year MK secured a total vote of 
,

from the three constituenciesthat it contested, while a month later the party’s chairman, Richard Jenkin,polled

,

votes (
.
% or nearly

% of the total Cornish vote) in theEuropean parliamentary constitu-ency of Cornwall & Plymouth.But MK failed to build on theseresults. The party’s vote in WestCornwall slumped in

(see Ta-ble
) as anti-Conservative votersswitched to the new SDP/LiberalAlliance. The shock of this defeat,combined with a lack of funds anda failure to develop a coherent strat-egy, meant that the nationalists didnot even contest the

and

elections. In

MK fielded four candidates on the platform of self-government within the Euro-pean Community, but the partystruggled to obtain an average voteof just one per cent.The electoral failure of the na-tionalist movement reflects a number of basic problems. In the first placethe increasing significance of tacti-cal voting ensures that a small partylike MK is going to be at a seriousdisadvantage in Westminster elec-tions, while the creation of the Cor-
Table 1 Cornish nationalist vote at general elections *
St IvesFal-CamBodmin **TruroNorth Cornwall ElectionVote%Vote%Vote%Vote%Vote%
1970––9602.0––––––1974 Feb––––––851.5––1974 Oct–––––3840.7––197916624.016373.08651.72270.4––19835691.25821.2––––3640.71987––––––––––1992––––––––––1997––2380.45731.04500.86451.1
*Mainly Mebyon Kernow candidates, but includes Cornish Nationalist Party (CNP) at Truro in 1979 and North Cornwall in 1983.**South-East Cornwall constituency since 1983.
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