Sick of some Cornish people bleating on as though they are the worlds only tourist destination

[Endlesssummer2022]

Just read the article below and found a few gems such as these:

’ have you ever wondered where the local people live? Or have you noticed that many of your holiday neighbours are recognisable in the narrow lanes of the pretty fishing villages because they are the same people you live near in London?’

and…

‘Despite what you may have read, we Cornish do welcome visitors and are happy to share our love of our land with you. But it might help if you do a bit of research – Cornwall is fiercely independent and has a proud and unique history and heritage…* *And try not to be rude to local people. If you’ve been asked to not drink from a glass bottle on the beach, there is a reason for that. Don’t forget to tip waiting staff. ‘

What patronising bollocks. So Londoner’s (as those are apparently the only people who visit Cornwall) are so untraveled and boorish we need to be told not to be rude to people, pay tips, not to smash glass bottles in sand, that we’ve bought all of their houses, that it’s ‘their’ land and we’re the ones who are rude?

I’d already decided I wouldn’t go back there after how some of them carried on during Covid but this article has pissed me off. Why would anyone go there when they can go to equally lovely places in the UK/World and not be treated with contempt?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/29/welcome-to-cornwall-please-dont-ruin-it-for-us-local-people

I don't know anyone who drives in London. Too busy and nowhere to park. And the public transport is world class and 24 hour We live in Zone 3 and only use the car to go out of London. Now I'm an old lady I get free public transport too, over-60s Oyster Card.

Well, there were plenty of people driving, because we wouldn’t have spent our weekends in traffic jams. There was no Underground in SE London. It was not practical for me, travelling on my own to get on and off buses, carrying twin babies, a double buggy, nappy bag and shopping!

I have NC as I know there are lots of people from London on the site and this is not going to go down well, but it’s my observations and in no way judgemental. Just noticing.

I live in a tourist area and, to be honest, Londoners are easy to spot. I’m sure there are lots of London tourists that are less obvious, but the attitude is often quite specific. I have close friends that are from or have lived in London for years, I love them dearly, but they are the same. Those that moved there have slowly changed to become more ‘Londony’.

It’s a kind of brusk, almost impatient and entitled approach to things. Never smile and say hello to people in the street (that’s something we all do here - it wasn’t like it in the city I came from). Don’t chat to or even say thank you to staff in shops and restaurants. Rarely tip. Don’t ‘give way’ and let others go first. It looks, from the outside, like a kind of assumption of being ‘better than’.

Some things I’ve overheard have been hilarious in terms of the mis-match between the ‘Londonesque’ attitude and the local culture.

It’s not an indication of how nice the person is (my London friends are wonderful people), it’s just the way it is in London, but here, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Those that had holiday homes here for years but now base themselves here since WFH has become more acceptable, do nothing to contribute to the local community. Don’t make efforts to join in and support the community in any way. Here, lots of people volunteer to keep various amenities going (e.g. kids clubs, gardening the public green spaces etc). None of the London lot do. Any incomers that do are from elsewhere.

It’s a very obvious divide here. There are the Londoners, the locals and those that are incomers (like me) from other places that involve themselves in the community and see it as home rather than a long term holiday.

I wonder if the people of Cornwall
have noticed the same attitudes and, coupled with the crippling effect on affordable housing, they are a bit fed up with it?

Is that not just a city/country thing, Wellthereissometruth?

People live at different speeds.

Speaking for myself and my Cornish village, we don't really mind where people living here come from. I have to stop to think whether people I know are Cornish born or "incomers"- I'm not Cornish, but I've lived here over 20 years. The only ex Londoner I can think of off the top of my head certainly gets involved in the village and did loads with the PTA.

As long as someone lives here full time and contributes to the community, it doesn't seem to matter where you were born. There's close to zero snippiness.

(well, unless you're a retired couple from the Midlands occupying a 5 bedroom, £650,000 house and I've heard you making derogatory comments about gypsy travellers and other ethnicities. You can take that bloody attitude back where it came from, people across the road 🙄)

We're in Wales find tourists in the main fine. Retirees however from cities are another matter, they're rude, brusque, they bring their old habits with them. They complain about everything and anything. They hate tourists, children, they're always in a hurry to get from a to b. Slow down and enjoy what you moved here for I say.

justasking111
Tories happened to squatters, that's what.

They made it illegal to squat in residential properties.

(However, a certain renegade local Councillor has pointed out that, if a holiday let is registered as a business to take advantage of business rates, Covid grants etc, then it is no longer a residential property but a commercial one. Which is still legal to squat 🤪)

Also justasking
I think retirees from upcountry have a lot to answer for. People are constantly throwing the "well you voted Tory", "you voted for Brexit" thing at us. Well, I certainly didn't! But areas that voted for these things have one overarching thing in common: an ageing demographic. Which Cornwall definitely does have.

And yet we have a high percentage of elderly people living in my county(In Scotland) and it was one of the most pro remain places in the U.K.

ArabeIIaScott · Today 08:35
Is that not just a city/country thing, Wellthereissometruth?

People live at different speeds.

It isn’t a City/Country thing. I moved from city to country. The city I came from isn’t like London. London has a unique culture. I noticed it a long time ago when I first visited. It’s fine. Just different.

Living at different speeds isn’t what I am talking about. You can be ‘fast’ without being impatient and rude. It takes one second to smile and say ‘thank you’.

Quite, @HoldingTheDoor - such is the ageism on here.
I think generalising isn't helpful (tourists, the Cornish, the elderly, the air bnb owners, whatever). There's clearly a massive problem that needs a rethink and there are 6 MPs in Cornwall who need to be doing more. I know they're all Conservative, but you'd think they'd care about the region. Apologies to them if they are initiating positive change, but if they are, they need to speed it up.

Sorry but thats ridiculous. "Londoners" are not some homogeneous group. It is the most diverse place in the country, whilst Cornwall is among the least. Which group is really most likely to behave as a hind mind? Realistically the londoners just pick up on the fact that they are not welcome...

crackofdoom

(However, a certain renegade local Councillor has pointed out that, if a holiday let is registered as a business to take advantage of business rates, Covid grants etc, then it is no longer a residential property but a commercial one. Which is still legal to squat 🤪)

Well, that is interesting. I wonder whether that has been tested in court yet. I can see a grass roots movement emerging here!

Aging yes, but I can't think of many areas of the country where the number of over 65s is greater than the number of people aged 18-65. What's your voter turnout like amongst your younger demographic?

Oliotya

Oh. Absolutely. I totally agree. It’s the wealthy, white Londoners that I notice mostly. And of course there will be my own bias in terms of what I notice or don’t.

However, this is based on visits to London over two decades, having friends from there/living there and seeing the change in them (one friend from the city I came from has now lived in London for 10 years and has gone from looking at waiting staff, smiling, saying thank you, to completely ignoring them apart from asking for things tersely). She’s a lovely person but that’s now the cultural norm for her. It’s also from observations of now living in a tourist place and noticing things.

Other good friends (London for all of adult life) came to visit and I felt quite embarrassed at times, the way they spoke to people (volunteers who were offering a service that they were unhappy about). Nothing wrong with what was offered. They are wonderful and kind people otherwise.

You can’t pigeon hole people, for sure, and I’m not judging all Londoners as ‘this or that’, but there do seem to be cultural norms that feel abrasive out of context.

I haven’t RTFT but what a patronising cow the author of that article is. Unless there is a local by law staying I cannot take a glass bottle on the beach I’ll take one, because a) glass doesn’t smash on sand, and b) I make damn sure I remove every scrap of little when I leave.

and suggesting people shouldn’t run on a coastal path because it causes erosion is insane. Runners use the same if not fewer footsteps to cover ground as walkers do, but walkers are ok but runners not?

She has totally lost the plot.

disquiet I think the young voter turnout was pretty good here, at least in line with the national average. We certainly worked quite hard to make it so!

The number of over 65s in an area doesn't have to be greater than the number of under 65s in order to skew a vote, it depends on the proportion. Besides, the age group at which it becomes more likely that people will vote Tory is 54- 65 (at least, it was at the last election).

Greater London is more than three times the population of Greater Manchester, so it's a city - and then some.

Or even better if it's one of those pseudo-businesses where they 'let' it out to friends to keep above the occupancy threshold but really it's a second home. Squat away, I say! That'll serve them right for tax-dodging.

In my area the people least likely to vote are 18-25, which is a shame.

Also, can I just say, the tax dodging down here from small business holders is huge. Cash is king, and unaccounted for.

@dishyrishi or it could mean that the broadband coverage is worse than the rest of England, so rather than risk losing their payment machine they request perfectly legal tender.

i'm assuming you run a small business and don't declare the cash you take, @dishyrishi , since you have no possible way of knowing what other businesses do with theirs?

Fair point our broadband cover is atrocious in some areas, hills, mountains, . I had to pay extra because evenings and weekends cover dropped to 11. Car radios, phones cut out. We're used to it but if you're unfamiliar with a route and break down calling the AA etc can be a challenge

The majority of elderly in Cornwall aren't retirees from elsewhere. There's no evidence they vote differently from locals. It's pathetic to keep blaming politics on some 'outside' group. I live in another West Country area and newcomers are blamed for this and much more. It's bollocks. Look up historical voting patterns in Cornwall. And compare to other areas. A shift to Tory voting happened in much of England. West Country has always been LibDem/Con flip flop.

I've not paid cash for anything down here in months. Not even for car parking now. Even if I did pay cash for car parking they've all got machines you put your details in so they will have a software record of total take for the day (by whatever means).

We don't have any banks either nor cashpoints to get cash out.

Even small cafes and ice cream sellers have little mobile card payment machines (sumup type) .