To think Cornwall has gone down market?

[ispofbaid]

Not my opinion - that of my friend. She said she was down in West Cornwall for the bank holiday weekend and the crowd seems go have changed a lot over the last five years.

It would be a better place if holiday lets were banned or restricted, so that local people could all afford somewhere to live.

You couldn't pay me to go back to Cornwall it's not a patch on Devon.

Signed

Northerner.

What is 'what Cornish people want'? though? My dad was disparaging about ultrafast internet investment by the EU; an old friend of mine runs a graphics and video business (yes, they're Cornish) and was thrilled- because she they can do business more effectively while living in a place she loves. Cornwall isn't just fishers and miners and farmers. It can't be preserved in 1950. The Cornish are not homogeneous.

The Brexit issue is also more complex than that. Most cornish fishers (in which I count close relatives) wanted to both reap the benefits of frictionless trade with the EU while controlling waters themselves. This was never going to happen, given what was realistically on the table for negotiation. It's cakeism. And among some quarters the argument is not for conservation of fishing stocks- it's that they should be allowed to overfish those grounds and not EU trawlers. Quota has always been under the control of central government and could have been upped. Loads of fish stocks crashed in the 1990s and that wasn't only due to offshore trawlers from the EU, the Cornish have to acknowledge their role in that (and it had very real consequences for my family).

There's a good podcast called The Reason Why which I really recommend to explore some of the contradictions at play in modern Cornwall.

That’s a very insightful point about not seeing what’s below the surface. I think not seeing rural poverty or exploitation because it looks pretty and you’re on holiday, is a massive global issue. A lot of quaint old fashioned or scenic natural looking places do rely on the local people there living extremely constrained lives. Tourism itself can be very morally questionable. A lot of us feed in to that in some ways.

That’s why fixing the lack of transport, digital connectivity and investment in rural infrastructure are all so important for people in rural areas in the UK so they aren’t just tourist deserts. By and large Westminster politicians ignore these areas.

Massively irritating when sitting Tory politicians like Cameron and Hancock have their self conscious ‘look at me’ brownie point staycations in Cornwall, as if that’s where they would ever normally go for a holiday. Or as areas with complex problems, that those places would even cross their minds to try to think about for political action.

If she wants Tory-central-pay-£10-for-an-ice cream-cone-share-the-beach-with- David-Cameron Cornwall, she needs to go to the north coast. Rock/Polzeath or Padstow.

Unfortunately for her they do still allow us Northern trogs in (as long as we can afford the parking).

We've visited Cornwall for years as we live in Gloucestershire and it's the easiest area of the country to access for holidays. However I really noticed a change after Covid and just how deprived some of the small communities are. There has also been a marked change in attitudes towards tourists.

What exactly IS ‘downmarket’ and why is it a bad thing?

Oh dear, couldn't she afford to stay in Rock...

The prices are dreadful. I'm a Northerner, and have been coming to Cornwall for a few years to walk the coast path (started in Minebead, have done north Devon, all of Cornwall, now back to Devon) There are plenty of unpleasant holiday makers - quite a few are the entitled London types who think they own the place, but just selfish people around everywhere these days, with little regard for the environment or other people's right to a peaceful holiday. Mostly fine when you're walking though. It's much better out of school holidays

Never had a problem in Bude which is quite a popular busy tourist cornish town, with lots of activities on offer, restaurants, cafes.

I only experienced racism once in Cornwall and that was from a shop owner....... who was Eastern European.

However, if you read some of the posts on this thread, some Cornish locals can be quite unwelcoming to tourists due to the locals being pushed out by the expense of living there. So was it definitely racism or just unwelcoming?

It also depends where you stay. I avoid visiting very rural areas in the UK or abroad as I find I receive more racism if I stay in places that have less diversity. Not saying it doesn't happen in busy town/cities, but I find that in rural areas its worse.

It's beautiful, don't let Southerners in! They spoil everything with their weird penchant for voting Tory, and buying all the houses

Hard agree

@Allthehorsesintheworld

I hope your friend recovers from her encounter with ( shock horror) northerners. Counselling, hypnotherapy, aromatherapy, I think she should throw everything at this.

😆I met a Northerner once. I am still in therapy. It's cost me a lot of time and money. The shock of it.

It was me BTW - I found out I had "Northern" blood in me as my Grandmother was from Preston. It was very traumatic.

(PS - bloody love Northerners as it goes - )

Landed Gentry Style is not something I associate with South Shields (and I am a Sand dancer )!

However, if you read some of the posts on this thread, some Cornish locals can be quite unwelcoming to tourists due to the locals being pushed out by the expense of living there. So was it definitely racism or just unwelcoming?

Chances are, if you meet some idiot "Cornishman" giving you a hard time as a Emmet, he/she moved down here last year from Kent but is now "Cornish" is busy re naming the local paths and fields and moving his fence to get back the 2inches of garden he thinks he has lost.

Very few of the kids i grew up with live anywhere near the S/W now, work and housing forced them out years ago.

@LaCouleurDeMonCiel No reassurance needed. I'm British, but not English.😁I just say 'Je suis galloise'. Most of them understand, but if they don't I just add 'comme le peuple irlandais ou breton'.

Lol...ditzy prints. 'naice' - you clearly live in the U.K!

Well I mean, the north is one thing but Preston is another matter.

Good question. I don’t think the Cornish are generally inherently racist, and I say that as someone married to a Middle Eastern man. Cornwall has never been hugely ethnically diverse though (it’s getting better) so some are surely ignorant.

The types of behaviour I’m talking about transcend race, they might be more to do with class, or they might be more to do with people being nobs. Lads on tour type of behaviour, making lots of noise, leaving mess behind, being rude or aggressive, trashing the holiday lets. That kind of thing.

St Ives did have quite a big food and drink culture (it’s less good these days), but being obviously drunk in the street (especially in day time) would not be appreciated. Anyone being unnecessarily stressy also doesn’t go down well, it’s a slower way of life and people are on the whole more chilled (food shopping drives me nuts there).

@MerryMaidens you make some very good points about the contradictions inherent in Cornwall, and to a lesser extent Devon, because some parts of Cornwall are another 2 1/2 hours from Devon! It's far away from London, not well served by transport (although roads much better now and faster) and so the likely economies there are quite fragile. I mean fishing is a good industry but I don't believe all of Cornwall voted for Brexit because of fishing, I just don't. Tourism bring a lot more £££ into the region, it just does, but it's very loaded as having lots of wealthier people swoop in and live for two weeks in a holiday cottage then scuppers local housing. Then again, if they didn't come, there's very little work.

I do think voting for Brexit was a form of self-harm in general for the Uk and absolutely crazy for Cornwall, but there you go. It's done now and any dedicated funds for Cornwall have, predictably, dried up as politicians are concerned with their constituents and there are not so many of them in Cornwall.

The poverty in Cornwall was worse IMO 15 years ago than that in the cities- poor areas in cities tend to have more movement of people, immigrants who are quite skilled, a general sense of money changing hands (not all legally), people are more on trend with clothes and cars, and it just has a more dynamic feel for poorer areas in London at least, this was not the case in Cornwall on some of those estates in the non-developed towns, they were absolutely in the worst poverty and not able to rise out of it as there's a lack of jobs and facilities.

It has got better and it is less overtly racist, but I wouldn't say it's not racist at all, just as I find pockets of the SW to be international and have more diverse populations and some to be for 'local locals' and to dislike incomers, especially foreign ones.

This thread is stunning. I'm actually aghast that so many apparently genuinely hold such classist opinions, and are happy to share them out loud.

The comment about "tattooed, smoking northerners" has made me particularly motivated to shift myself down from Yorkshire, get my tattoos out and take up smoking in Fowey for the summer. Bloody hell you lot need to get a grip.

I'm with @Caerulea on this one, drunken entitled Hooray Henrys are far, far worse than folks with neck tats, wearing hoodies or with names like Kayleagh.

Plus Cornwall is so expensive as to be exclusionary. It's cheaper for us to fly to Spain for a week. Which is what we do instead.

To be honest, I’m not even sure why people do bother to visit it. I have to because I need to see my family so we just get on with it. But it’s grotesque now, basically a theme park, where most of the people serving you can’t afford to live. It’s very pretty but so are loads of other places. It is, to some degree, baffling.

Dont know about going down hill but Ive noticed every single person has a dog.

Rowdiness?