Why Cornwall Needs a Green New Deal
Cornwall is one of the most deprived regions in Britain, and in its poorest areas almost half of children grow up in poverty. It doesn't have to be that way - Labour's bold green agenda offers hope of a different future.
By their very nature, elections are often linked in our memories to numbers and statistics: total number of seats won, percentage swings and turnout. But there are two numbers that I will remember the general election of 2019 for: 700 and 49.
On a cold, wet November afternoon in the second week of the election campaign, I visited the CPR foodbank in the Centenary Methodist Church in Camborne with Paul Farmer, Labour’s candidate for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, where we met with its director, the indefatigable Don Gardner. Forty-nine minutes later, Don informed us that the centre had just given out its 700th meal. While statistics like that still naturally anger him, they no longer surprise a man who runs one of the UK’s largest food banks.
Although there are many factors behind such shocking figures, when Paul asked Don how we could address this issue, he had an immediate response: “Jobs: good, sustainable, well-paid jobs.” However, the problem is that jobs of any description are hard to come by, even the zero-contract positions that are so prevalent in Cornwall, as any local resident can tell you. Nine years of Tory austerity, coming after decades of chronic under-investment, have decimated the regional economy on which people depend for their livelihoods.
Cornwall’s New Deal
Many people still have a romanticised view of Cornwall, drawn perhaps from nostalgic holiday memories, that stands in the way of a clear understanding of the county’s problems. These cultural stereotypes — cream tea, sandy beaches and Poldark — help mask the region’s crippling levels of poverty. In parts of the Camborne, Redruth & Hayle constituency, we can find some of the highest levels of deprivation anywhere in northern Europe.
The fake BBC smoke rising from the engine houses of Poldark does allude to the long, proud history of Cornish engineering and innovation that helped drive the first industrial revolution. It is this past that Paul Farmer is keen to emulate by adopting all the policies of Labour’s new Green Industrial Revolution — only this time avoiding the seamy side of the first one, marred by so many terrible social injustices and abuses of workers’ rights.
As Farmer said at the Falmouth rally last week that was also addressed by Jeremy Corbyn:
“Engineering is the heart and soul of this constituency; it is what we are all about. But this time, it will not be a revolution that is funded by private investment that will have to consider the demands of shareholders while disregarding any damaging environmental impacts. This time funding will be provided by Regional Development Banks, that will have a clear understanding of specific regional issues and so allow and encourage investment in new businesses, infrastructure and environmentally friendly growth industries, for which Cornwall is renowned . . . we have the longest coastline of any UK county which, when coupled with the prevailing south westerly winds and its granite bedrock, will all provide unparalleled opportunities to develop sources of clean, renewable tidal, wind and geothermal energy.”
Farmer went on to remind his audience that Cornwall gave the world Richard Trevithick, the inventor of the steam engine: “I believe that in one of the Primary schools of this constituency there is another Richard Trevithick, who, with the help of Labour’s National Education Service, will devise the technology to save our planet. And in saving our planet we will restore our manufacturing industries to the constituency and then export that new green technology and expertise to the rest of the world.”
Back to the Future
It used to be said that if you looked down a deep mine anywhere in the world you would find a Cornishman staring back at you, as the diaspora spread to countries as far apart as Mexico, South Africa and Australia. We need to draw upon that heritage, making Cornwall a world leader in invention and innovation. Imagine finding a Cornish man or woman, not staring up from the bottom of a mine, but helping to install an offshore tidal hub, erect a wind turbine, or drill a geothermal bore hole.
If we’re going to create a society that eliminates the need for foodbanks giving out 700 meals in 49 minutes in the world’s fifth-richest economy, and if, most importantly of all, we are going to finally address the impending climate emergency, Cornwall will need to embrace the radical, systemic change that is being offered by Labour.
As Farmer said, at the conclusion of his speech at the Falmouth rally:
“We are the people that hold the future in our hands and through our Green Industrial Revolution we will give birth to that future, because if we don’t, our planet will die. That is why it is so vitally important that we win this election.”