PROTEST takes many forms. Recently I received emails, as did every Cornwall Councillor, about Bobby Vylan, who infamously shouted 'Death to the IDF!' during his performance at Glastonbury, inciting the audience to join in.

The email asked Cornwall Council to ban him from performing at Boardmasters music festival. I was sympathetic to a ban, as he was inciting violence and hate speech, but it is not within Cornwall Council’s control. The organisers have full control over the line-up, are very aware that any controversy would jeopardise any future licence, and have been advised by the Police. Whilst I was sympathetic to the complainant, my sympathy was tested when my email inbox was inundated with hundreds of emails on the same subject, making it difficult to find emails to which I needed to respond.

At Full Council in Truro, I took a leaflet from campaigners outside County Hall, protesting that Cornwall Pension Fund invests in businesses which supply arms to Israel. I discussed the issue with them, I am aware that the Cornwall Pension Fund is highly regulated and acts within its legal and fiduciary duties. It has a legal duty to provide for member’s benefits, who’s monies the pension fund is and must have a diversified investment portfolio and do what is best for the financial position of the Fund; these are not Council investments. It’s not appropriate for investment decisions to be driven directly by the political views of Pension Committee members due to the fiduciary duty it has. Unfortunately, one of the campaigners shouted from the Public Gallery at the start of the meeting. The Chair suspended the meeting whilst she was escorted from the Gallery, and when the meeting resumed he told the campaigners that further interruptions would not be tolerated.

As a Liberal Democrat, I believe in the right to peaceful protest and regret that the Tories made it illegal. After all, women would not have got the vote without the Suffragettes, or slavery banned without William Wilberforce or apartheid ended without Martin Luther King and their campaigners.

During the meeting, we had two motions about our marine environment. One was about abandoned boats, cluttering up our foreshores, estuaries, and harbours, and decaying, polluting the water with oil and glass-reinforced plastics. There is no incentive to recycle them, and most authorities have little power to remove them, which is expensive. We resolved to work with stakeholders to disincentivise abandonment, clean up those abandoned, and ask government for legislation to address the issue. The other was about flying rings, similar to Frisbees but with no centre. These are often sold as games on beaches, but some have ended up in the sea. Seals, who are inquisitive by nature, have been seen with these lodged around their necks, which they cannot remove. The rings create wounds that eventually prevent them from swallowing, leading to starvation. We resolved to ban the sale of these rings on Council land, to promote a voluntary ban throughout Cornwall and discourage their use on Cornwall Council beaches.