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Cornish Charity Calls for Serious Debate About the Future

A Cornish charity which specialises in volunteering has called for a county-wide debate on how we prepare Cornwall for the challenges of the future.

Volunteer Cornwall, which runs Volunteer Centres and projects across the county, says it is time we faced up to some harsh truths about the global changes taking place and the impact they will have on us here in Cornwall.

The charity’s Chief Executive, Ian Jones, says “We need to stop thinking that a return to economic growth is just around the corner and will solve all our problems. Our recent prosperity has been built on debt and consumerism and whether we like it or not, Europe and America will not be the dominant economies of the future.”

Ian, who has a business management and education background, says we need to be considering some radical new ideas if we are to put Cornwall in a strong position for the future.

“You simply cannot have never ending economic growth on a planet with finite resources. We know that fuel costs will continue to rise, home ownership becomes ever more expensive, we are running out of key resources, food production is not keeping pace with demand. It’s easy to say ‘Well what can we do about such major issues in Cornwall’ but there are things we can do locally – the trouble is no-one seems to want to talk about them; everything ends up in the ‘Too difficult’ pile.”

Ian says we should be considering radical ideas like adopting a Cornish currency, re-designing our communities so we live our lives in a very different way and reshaping public services so we rely less on the state to do things for us and more on people helping themselves and each other.

“I often hear the argument that these are global issues and there’s nothing we can do but some of us have been advocating a different approach for many years. Ignored at first, we are now beginning to influence the debate but  time is running out. We need to sit down as a county – our political and business leaders, our public sector and charity chiefs and ordinary people, who are watching the events in Greece and Cannes with a sense of frustration and bewilderment – and plan for the kind of Cornwall we want for ourselves and our children.”

The charity says it would like to see some kind of forum set up where a public debate can be held but adds that action is imperative. “It’s no good if we endlessly talk about our problems, we need to start doing something positive now if we are to avoid being at the mercy of the global storm which is currently raging,” Ian added.