Bernard Deacon

From the few results elsewhere in the local elections I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Tories retain the largest number (though much reduced) of seats on Cornwall Council with Reform in 2nd place.

Still waiting ...

Cornwall’s local elections 2025 Which political party seeking our vote in tomorrow’s local elections is the most ‘Cornish’? Putting policies aside, most of which are merely variants of ‘build more’, …

Will the Trump factor play a part in tomorrow's local elections in Cornwall? Probably not but here are my idle speculations on these elections cornwalldevelopersparadise.wordpress.com/2025/04/30/c...

An election leaflet from Trump-lite Labour, tough on blockers, the disabled, oaps, the environment etc., and another from even more Trump-friendly Reform, led by hedge-funds, chancers with a sprinkling of swivel-eyed conspiracists. What a choice! Think I'll wait for the Cornish Independence Party.

Tax war brews over Britain’s charming little getaways by the sea Second home owners are poised to fight back as Cornwall prepares to impose double council tax – leaving councillors fearing for their budget

Expropriate the expropriators? Confused article tells paper's Cornwall 2nd home readers how to avoid council tax but admits tourist tax, planning regulations and devolution on Welsh model needed to begin to end this scandal www.theguardian.com/money/2025/m...

The butcher and the baker but not the candlestick maker Just over one in 20 men and women in the Cornwall of the 1860s was recorded in the census as a shopkeeper, merchant or trader of some sort. These ranged from the humble itinerant hawkers peddling t…

And finally, to complete the parish-level analysis of Cornwall's mid-19th century occupational geography we have ... bernarddeacon.com/2025/03/01/t...

Residents invited to have say on how to fix Cornwall's housing crisis Noah Law MP is holding three public events in St Austell, Newquay and Roche.

Labour MP asking voters how to solve housing crisis!? But hasn't he been told that his Govt and party has found the answer - build, baby, build (more unaffordable houses), bash the blockers and boost developers' and landlords profits. Simple. www.voicenewspapers.co.uk/news/residen...

Clothing the people: female manufacturers Whereas 18 per cent of men in the Cornwall of the 1860s worked in manufacturing, this classification encompassing a broad range of activities, around 13 per cent of unmarried women were found in th…

Which parts of Victorian Cornwall were home to the highest numbers of dressmakers, knitters and factory girls? bernarddeacon.com/2025/02/28/c...

Cornish craftsmen in the 1860s Nowadays fewer than one in five of the labour force are engaged in actually making things, in the sense of taking some raw materials and turning them into something else. The rest of us, if we are …

The first of three posts completing the parish-level analysis of occupations in Cornwall from the 1861 census looks at the distribution of craftsmen bernarddeacon.com/2025/02/27/c...

Parish first in county to produce new planning document Priorities set out by parishes will go toward forming Cornwall’s next Local Plan

Re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic after Government trashes Neighbourhood Plans? All that time and energy volunteers spent on Neighbourhood planning gone to waste. www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/parish-...

No idea!

More fields about to go at PZ? Although it'll have 'green infrastructure' the 140 houses won't do much for whatever lives in those woods. The Essex-based developers and Bristol architects promise 'affordable' housing numbers will be 'policy-complaint'. www.msn.com/en-gb/money/...

No 10 denies dragging king into politics after visit to Cornwall with Starmer and Rayner Government says timing of trip to ‘sustainable community’ days before major housing announcement is a coincidence

PM and property developers visit Newquay settlement. Meanwhile, Labour orders Cornwall's planners to allow equivalent of seven more of these every year to boost market for 'Cornwall lifestyle', trash countryside and ignore national rights of Cornish. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Bal maidens We have seen that Cornish mines employed 30 per cent of the male labour force in 1861. But they also employed several thousand women on the surface, breaking up rock, washing it or picking out ore …

Women and grils at the mine. How many bal maidens were there in mid-19th century Cornwall? Where were they? All is revealed. Well, some anyway. bernarddeacon.com/2025/02/09/b...

I've increased the font size for the third blog. Let me know if you think that's an improvement on your mobile.

A woman’s work is never done Or should we say a woman’s work is never properly quantified? Putting aside the difficulty involved in differentiating (if indeed we should) between paid and unpaid work, the nineteenth century cen…

The sixth in my series of maps on the occupations of 19th century Cornwall is the first attempt to my knowledge to map the geography of domestic servants at parish level bernarddeacon.com/2025/02/08/a...

Those in peril on the sea: mariners in Victorian Cornwall A region bordered on three sides by the sea might be expected to be home to a fair number of men described as mariners, seamen, sailors or Royal Navy personnel. In fact, in 1861 there were more of …

bernarddeacon.com/2025/02/07/t...

Cornwall and devolution 3: England’s first colony We have seen that the government’s neo-liberal ‘devolution’ holds out zero prospects for a democratically elected Cornish Assembly. We have also seen that the blueprints for such an assembly, howev…

All 3 of my musings on Cornwall, its people and devolution are now provocatively live at cornwalldevelopersparadise.wordpress.com/2025/02/07/c...

Finding fishermen in Victorian Cornwall While the status of the miner on Cornwall’s coat of arms seems assured, warranted by their 30 per cent or so of the total workforce, that of fishermen is less secure. In contrast, the two per cent …

Today we're concentrating on the concentrated fishermen of Victorian Cornwall bernarddeacon.com/2025/02/06/f...

Cornwall and devolution 2: From ends to means It’s crystal clear that the government’s top-down devolution is of no relevance to the struggle for Cornish democratic devolution. It offers no path to a Cornish Assembly. The only possibility it r…

How does democracy interact with the campaign for a Cornish Assembly? #2 of 3 short essays on Cornwall and devolution cornwalldevelopersparadise.wordpress.com/2025/02/05/c...

Digging for riches: not just miners but quarriers Most modern employment classifications treat mining and quarrying as a single economic sector. So how many more workers did clay extraction and quarrying add to the mining and quarrying sector in 1…

Quantifying the clay workers and quarrymen of 1860s Cornwall bernarddeacon.com/2025/02/05/d...

Victorian Cornwall’s leading sector: metal mining There was no question about Cornwall’s leading economic sector in the mid-1800s. In terms of income, productivity and employment it was metal mining. The early 1860s marked the peak of Cornish mini…

The second in a series of blogs providing a brief overview of Cornwall's occupational structure in 1861 at the end of its period as a leading industrial region bernarddeacon.com/2025/02/04/v...

Cornwall and devolution 1: delivering devonwall In September last year, the Cornish Democracy Unit (CDU) at the Institute of Cornish Studies produced a blueprint for devolution to Cornwall (Devolution for Cornwall: One of Britain’s Oldest Nation…

Delivering devonwall - the first of three brief essays on Cornwall and devolution cornwalldevelopersparadise.wordpress.com/2025/02/03/c...

PLANNING: Forget bats and newts, Reeves tells developers Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she was "genuinely shocked" at how slow the planning process for new build homes was.

Thank heaven we have a brave govt that protects us from b̶a̶n̶k̶e̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶p̶o̶r̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶u̶p̶e̶r̶-̶r̶i̶c̶h̶ bats, newts and nimbies and stands up for the 9̶9̶%̶ 1% thenegotiator.co.uk/news/land-ne...

Moreover, on an amendment to remove the words that "elected members will not countenance any cross-border combined authority deals" 29 councillors voted for the removal and only 36 in favour, with several abstentions.

Should we talk about Devonwall? How your councillor voted - Cornwall Reports There were plenty of divisions within the Conservative and Labour parties on display yesterday (Tuesday) as only four councillors voted against the “hands off Cornwall!” motion.   The four were Conser...

Cornwall Council's united stance rejecting devonwall already beginning to fray as 12 Tories (out of 43) and 3 Labour (out of 5) either vote against Cornwall-only devolution or abstain. cornwallreports.co.uk/should-we-ta...

The vague 'lots of jobs' ploy is both familiar and fatuous. There is rarely any follow-up research on actual nos of jobs created and when there is the original claim is often found to be ludicrous - a good example being CC's spaceport scheme

Developer tries to reduce affordable homes as site now 'less viable' It also believes previously refused plans for nine detached houses on land between Truro and Falmouth should now be approved under new Labour policy.

Please form an orderly queue to take advantage of the Labour Govt's extreme developer-friendly building plans uk.news.yahoo.com/developer-tr...

Wales has accommodated enough. AirBnBs and second homes are no longer welcome Stephen Price An article published by the Guardian following the Budget in March contained a shocking graphic which brought to light the high concentrations of holiday homes found in Wales. The articl...

If Wales has 'accommodated enough' Cornwall has accommodated considerably more than enough. Will 2025 see real action taken against 2nd and holiday homes? Don't hold your breath. nation.cymru/opinion/wale...

Town leads ‘no confidence’ protest against Cornwall’s planning department Marazion Town Council is urging local authorities to join forces in passing a “no confidence” motion

Will 2025 be the year the worm turned? Congratulations to Marazion Town Council for taking a stand against 'chancers, cowboy builders and money grabbers' and Cornwall Council. How many others will follow their lead? www.voicenewspapers.co.uk/news/town-le...