My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 20 in my name. I am delighted to have the support of the noble Lord, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, who is widely respected in the House, both for his service as an invariably responsive and listening Minister and for his previous role in Wales since devolution. Noble Lords will recall that he endorsed my plea at Second Reading that the especially distinct identity of Cornwall should be recognised in the Bill.
I am also pleased to have the support of two of my noble friends, both of whom have given great public service to Cornwall. Noble Lords may be aware that allies on Cornwall Council have also endorsed my proposition.
Physical geography makes it abundantly clear that Cornwall is an especially distinct entity in the UK. If you try to follow the boundary between England and Wales and England and Scotland, or even between Northern Ireland and the Republic, you have the devil’s own job. You can find yourself endlessly crossing largely invisible lines. However, if you try crossing almost all the boundary to Cornwall, you will get very wet. When the Conservative Party was pushing the case for a Devonwall constituency, David Cameron was very dismissive of the River Tamar. He is reported to have objected, “It’s not exactly the Amazon, is it?” Ironically, his comparison is actually rather useful: the Tamar has been a natural boundary from prehistoric times, while the Amazon is the natural route into the interior of all of South America. Indeed, for many centuries it would have been the only link between different inland areas.
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The constituency I served, North Cornwall, ran for miles along that natural boundary. The administrative separation is clear and logical. I would have found it unnecessarily bureaucratic and hugely time-consuming to have to deal with both Truro and Exeter council officials, 100 miles apart, and my constituents would inevitably have suffered.
The previous planned Devonwall constituency was an impractical nightmare. I simply cannot understand why any of the current MPs in Cornwall were prepared to even countenance it. Physical geography can determine human geography, and never more so than in the history of the Cornish peninsula. I admit that I am very strongly prejudiced: my ancestors arrived in north Cornwall around 1066 and, perhaps more significantly, I am directly descended from Bishop Trelawny, on whose behalf the national song records that 20,000 Cornishmen threatened to march on London to secure his release from the clutches of James II. In truth, he and the other six bishops were acquitted by a London jury in Westminster Hall, thus precipitating the 1688 Glorious Revolution. It was the King who was found to be trying to undermine the rule of law—a moral for today.
This reminder of the extent of Cornish self-awareness, pride in our distinct history and determination to maintain the identity and integrity of Cornwall is obviously very relevant to the Bill. As the Minister will confirm, our own Government have recognised this with the 2014 declaration of the extension of the framework convention for the protection of national
minorities to Cornwall, acknowledging the unique identity of the Cornish and comparing them to the other Celtic peoples in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. In this context, an explicit reference to the political integrity of the territories associated with such groups is formidable.
I anticipate that the Minister may claim that the combination of 650 constituencies and his limited 5% margin either side of the expected base figure, around 72,000 electors, could mean that the breaking out of Cornwall’s traditional boundary may not be necessary. We have no proof of that; until the latest March 2020 electoral registers are known, we cannot be sure. Of course, it is blindingly obvious that if the House arrives at a consensus variance of 8%—or 10% where special circumstances persuade the Boundary Commission to be exceptionally flexible—this threat will recede. That is acknowledged and accepted. However, it would surely be wholly preferable for the legislation to leave no shadow of doubt—any more than it does with the borders of England with Wales and Scotland—to maintain this long-standing distinct identity for Cornwall. It would be helpful to create this clarity for future boundary reviews. Who knows how the electorate will vary in years to come?
If the Minister wishes to tighten up the wording of the amendment, I am sure that I and my three colleagues would be only too happy to discuss with him the optimum way to do so. As long as the intention is abundantly clear, I am always ready to explore improvements. One does not need to be a separatist to acknowledge the strength of this case. Indeed, I believe that the continuing unity of the United Kingdom depends on accepting the lessons of its diversity.
I turn to Amendments 18 and 22. The former, so ably moved by the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, emphasising the vital significance of local ties, is very relevant to my amendment, and I hope that the Minister will be sympathetic.
I have more difficulty with Amendment 22, because I too want to argue for much greater attention to local demography. However, it should surely apply in all parts of the United Kingdom and not just in Wales. That should surely be a common feature throughout if we are to remain united. The supporters of this amendment are usually very eloquent, so I hope that they will be able to indicate why remoter areas elsewhere in the UK, with equal problems regarding rurality, should not have universal equality of treatment. Perhaps they will indicate to the Committee whether they accept the proposed maximum number of constituencies for Wales, when their special 15% lower variance for some would inevitably mean a special higher variance for others.
I must apologise to colleagues if I have been even less articulate than usual. Our son, a proper Cornishman, swam the Channel overnight in a relay with three other Hackney pirates. Proud and anxious parents did not get much sleep as we followed their progress.