Letter of the week - Euro-elections: a tragedy for Cornwall

I have waited for a few weeks to assess the impact of the European Parliament election result on the people of Cornwall, ie the loss of Robin Teverson MEP.

The Cornish Times did mention the story in a subsidiary front page headline of its issue on June 18; Colin Breed MP's column on June 25 expressed genuinely-felt sadness; and Mr Bailey's letter of the same week came much closer to the reality of the situation.

But the truth is that this is a tragedy of the first order for Cornwall.

For the past five years, I have felt proud to live in Cornwall represented by someone of real political clout, who ate, slept, drank and breathed Cornwall.

Robin, in the opinion of many people of all parties and none, was the best single spokesman that Cornwall has had, certainly since David Penhaligon, and maybe before.

Cornwall, as they say, 'punched above its weight' and, as a result, hundreds of millions of pounds of European money is coming its way.

Under a particularly bad form of proportional representation, it was never going to be easy for Robin to get re-elected.

But the truth is that, even under the old first-past-the-post system, he would still have lost. And why? Because 70 per cent of Cornish voters couldn't be bothered to vote.

Only the dinosaur brigade of yesteryear Euro-bashers were sufficiently motivated to turn out.

At least the Irish and Spanish over the past 10 years have been smart enough to realise that, purely out of self-interest, if for no greater good, Europe was vital to their future.

Why is it so difficult to explain to Cornish voters that a strong and positive voice is (was?) so important to their future.

It looks like it will take until the 21st century before we can drag Cornwall into the 20th century. Talk about death wish 2000.

Cornwall has such potential as a unique place: culture, history, heritage, identity, landscape, workforce, innovation, etc, etc.

Europe and the world is moving on; we can't allow ourselves the luxury of apathy. Forget the rightly-deserved shame, but at least wake up!.

TONY JOHNSON

Sheviock Barton

Sheviock