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

Agreed. It is embarrassing and parochial.

I can’t imagine living in London and calling new people ‘incomers’.

It is just all so odd and insular!

You're an idiot determined to be offended. I said I'm happy to see them but we do have to continue our normal routine here. As for using the word emmet I never have I'm being xenophobic, give your head a wobble.

🤣🤣🤣
I know how you feel

I've never used the word incomer, you need new specs 🙄

Did I say you did?

Others have though. It’s a general vibe of some Cornish people fearing and loathing ‘others’ who are different from them. I kind of feel sorry for you lot feeling this way.

Not a lot, auto generated email acknowledging receipt. Can take three months to get a reply from MP, and then its a generalised reply. I haven't lobbied them re holiday homes yet, but will get round to it as I am just now recovering from having my home put on the market by my landlord. The immediate threat of homelessness is now gone as it's off the market again, but I still need to move out. Only trouble is there is nowhere to go, every private rent that comes up has a waiting list of 30 families plus in dire need of a home. I had a housing officer assigned to me via a local councillor months ago, the local MP's office haven't been one bit helpful after several emails asking for help to get myself and my disabled children a better banding on the home choice register. I've been on the homechoice register for 12 plus years now. Housing in this area has been bad but it's about to get much much worse as we are now becoming the new St Ives. Toursits are fed up with St Ives being so busy and having no community left, so they're moving this way. I can't see me living in my home town in 5 years time.

That's really dreadful, @Boopydoo and I'm sorry to hear of your predicament.
None of the MPs or councillors in Cornwall seem to be doing anything at all.
I'm hoping you find something soon, and, be reassured - this thread has definitely made me decide not to visit Cornwall!

Community is one of the most precious things we can have. A sense of belonging, a sense of understanding, the feeling of being part of something, a shared understanding.

In tourist hotspots this has been massively eroded over the last five years in particular. Its effected healthcare, education and social cohesion.

Tourists seem to think that because they're paying for time away, everyone they meet owes them subservience.

Newly relocated residents have little or no experience of being part of a geographical community rather than interest clubs and societies.

City and suburban attitudes are generally selfish, myopic and entitled.

The overall impact of tourism is generally negative round here.

It is lovely here, no doubt about it, I don't hate tourists just the over tourism we are seeing right now. It just seems to all be about greed. I'm hoping the next election sees the back of all the Tory MP's but I'm not holding my breath. Traditionally, the farmers voted Tory, but the town and village dwellers tended to be lib dem or labour, I don't know many Tory voters but they keep getting voted back in and we are totally puzzled by it all. A lot of people retire here so we can only assume it's the incomers voting them back in every time.
MP's keep waffling on about they are ensuring affordable housing is being built, that translates to 2 out of 30 new house builds being offered up for a rent that is still triple the amount of a house on home choice. So 'unaffordable' for local people then!

No, all 6 Cornwall MPs are Tory. Nothing is going to change anytime soon.

Right. So, all country or small town dwellers are racist, uneducated, lacking aspiration, and leaches on the state? No, didn’t think so.

People are people. You get selfish people on the coast and you get selfish people in the city.

Let's not act as if the cornish have no control over who they sell houses to and who they vote for.
I think the entitled ones are those expecting sole use of an entire county while taking no responsibility for it not being exactly how they like it.

I remember a neighbour moving here and renting a house. She complained to the council copying in the mp about, sheep poo, cow poo and horse poo on the lanes in the village. She called the police because she considered a neighbours dog dangerous. He did lie in the lane under the shade of a canopy of trees when it was hot. He was deaf so you had to get out of the car and signal the daft old boy to move which he always did albeit slowly. Dog got an asbo a cockerel owner she took to court because he was noisy so he had to be locked in a separate shed. He still crowed

She did join the church and tried to take over completely. The vicar had to step in. Feathers were ruffled. BUT she was the only one I can recall who was annoying.

The motorhomes have problems around the village sat nav has taken them up wrong tracks many a time.

We also have lovers turning up in two cars then steaming up the windows in one vehicle. 🤣

To be honest I am a bit fed up with the Cornish people’s attitudes. If it wasn’t for people like me going to one of my second homes in Cornwall they would struggle to exist. It’s bad enough that there are hardly any branches of Waitrose and the roads aren’t wide enough for my SUV as it is without listening to them winging.

It’s stressful enough as it is having to put up with ‘council estate’ tourists with football tops and belly’s hanging over their tracksuit bottoms wandering around past my house all day.

Resentment of incomers in this century is odd and pointless. People move places then over time become locals or have children who are.

'Incomers' - do people actually use this term? This kind of mentality is basically what caused Brexit and everything that's wrong with the U.K. Thanks for that. And now they'll be moaning there is nobody to do the seasonal work locals won't do.

@dolceniente eh? WTF are you going on about?

Well, people do use "incomer" as a descriptive term. I'm an incomer (of 20 years standing), so are half the people I know in my village, and the other half are "locals". My kids were born here so I guess they're locals too!

I have witnessed practically zero friction between the 2 camps- our kids go to school together, we drink, socialise and volunteer together shag each other too sometimes

And we are all united in our dislike of second homes 😊

How can you not understand. You were generalising negatively about city dwellers so she did the same about country folk.

It is pointless yes, I love diversity and community.
The Cornish are famous for travelling round for work, we followed the mining all over the world.
In my street we have had a diverse mix of people who joined together as a community, we help one another, shop for those less able, bake cakes for the unwell or recently bereaved. Now, there are ten houses as holiday lets, that's more than last year, the majority were private rented properties sold by landlords to the highest bidder because private renting is no longer a way to make money. One was an elderly lady's home that had to be sold to pay for her care home, she had no dependents so that one became a holiday home. Pre the holiday lets quite a few of us were Cornish but had married someone from up country, therefore an incomer, but they were still living here as part of the community. There are houses that have been purchased by people moving down to Cornwall and they've joined in and become part of our community, they've not been ostracized in any way shape or form. But the holiday lets lay empty for half the year, the owners rarely come to stay and when they do they don't join in with our community.
Another two houses have just sold on the street, we will wait and see and hope that they don't become two more holiday lets and cause our community to dwindle yet further.
Incomers are fine, as long as they then don't want to spend all their time criticizing our ways and getting us to change. Like the ones complaining about the town clock chiming every hour, you get used it! It's been part of the town for 100's of years you're not going to get it turned off lol

I wasn't making negative comments about city or suburban dwellers. It was an observation that different demographics find a sense of community in different ways.

I like to say "hi" to tourists because it absolutely messes with their heads!😈

HA! You’re so right 😂 i have a LOT of Cornish family (including DM!) so I feel that I can laugh about this because it’s something that I say about them all the time … the way they talk you’d think that the rest of the UK was modern, uninteresting and with no natural beauty or interesting history and everyone is out to rinse Cornwall for all its worth!

The main problem is second home owners, not the people who come here to live and work.

I walk a lot of the coastpath in the winter and pass through empty village after empty village. It’s heartbreaking to see the houses dark, shops shut, no one around.

Second homes kill communities, services and facilities. It’s a fact and not ‘insular/xenophobic’ to be concerned about this.

DontGoThereYet

Before you say that what I type is silly, please read all the relevant posts. You have picked a reply that clarifies something I have said that has been misunderstood. I wasn’t saying that Londoners NEVER thank waiting staff etc.

I view London as a cold place. I like it and I have good friends there, but my first visit there shocked me in terms of how people don’t interact much with each other. I guess because there are so many people and some that you’d regret interacting with! I soon switch off my friendly smile and usual chat mode when I’m there. I also start getting a bit more assertive - not letting others go before me - because it’s just not done much and I end up feeling a bit put out.

Where I live now - lots of saying hello and having a natter if you just happen to be in the same place as another human. Lots of ‘after you’s and you chat with and thank any staff you interact with (and probably have a natter). Less people around so less opportunities. To have the same approach in London you’d never get anywhere!

In my current context, that behaviour that seems acceptable in London, would be experienced as abrasive.

So, I do think that certain social norms that are ok in London feel abrasive in small rural places - so then Londoners get a bad reputation. Of course it’s not all Londoners but I’ve seen it in my friends too, who are otherwise, lovely people. They live in London for a while and start adopting those same behaviours. It’s just how it is. And when you are in it, you don’t notice it.

Different places have different cultural norms. I guess it’s up to each individual whether or not to adapt to the place they find themselves in. I see lots of London tourists or ‘incomers’ as the local locals call anyone who moves in ‘from away’ stick with London norms in terms of behaviour, and that does rub people up the wrong way.

It’s not a ‘city’ and ‘country’ thing as I moved here from a city. My old city isn’t like that. It has a different culture.

No one is making you go to Cornwall, it's not compulsory you know.

Plenty of tourists still coming, don't think we'll miss a few Grauniad readers tbh.