Between 11 and 13 June 2021, leaders from the world’s wealthiest nations will converge on Cornwall, England’s poorest county and the second poorest region in northern Europe, to attend the 47th G7 Summit. The G7 representatives will be joined by the leaders of Australia, India (virtual participation) , South Africa, and South Korea, and the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council. The topics under discussion will include climate change, free and fair trade, cybersecurity, defence, and, most important of all, plans for post-pandemic economic recovery. This is the seventh time the UK is hosting this summit, the last time being in 2013 in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland.
This summit is being hosted at the hilltop five-star Tregenna Castle Resort . The former Great Western Railway hotel overlooks a sandy beach in the village of Carbis Bay, one mile southeast of the town of St Ives, on the northern coast of Cornwall. Its 72 acres of private grounds provide all the usual luxuries that the powerful and the wealthy are accustomed to, wherever they may choose to go.
G7 summits inevitably attract the unwelcome attentions of terrorists, climate change activists, and anti-capitalism protesters. The Devon and Cornwall Police has accordingly drafted in 5,000 police officers from across the UK to boost local reserves of around 1,500. A Baltic cruise ship has been moored off Falmouth to accommodate the incomers, while a Royal Naval gunboat is patrolling the shores off Carbis Bay. Onshore, roads and footpaths have been closed and diverted, while security barriers and fencing have created what might be likened to a fortress, within which locals have to carry ID in the form of proof of address and can be subjected to security checks on the spot, when required.
In choosing Cornwall as the venue for the G7 summit , the UK Government hopes to boost the local economy, and also to highlight the major role played by the county’s copper and tin mines during the Industrial Revolution. In recent years, Cornwall’s economy has been in decline, relying heavily on the seasonal tourist trade. Mining ended with the closure of the South Crofty tin mine in March 1998. However, the legacy of Cornish mining endures at the Camborne School of Mines, which trains today’s geologists and mining engineers. An earlier slump in mining, after the 1860s, led to the mass emigration of miners to the Americas, Australia and South Africa, where “Cornish Jacks” set up enclaves of Little Cornwall. All that remains of the mines today can be seen in the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, the largest UNESCO World Heritage Site on the British mainland.
Cornwall has a distinctive Celtic heritage. Cut off from the rest of England by the River Tamar except at the very north, its remote location at one end of the Southwestern Peninsula helped foster the county’s unique identity. Cornish place name prefixes such as car-, lis-, tre-, pen-, pol-, and ros- are to be found all across the county. Kernewek, the near-extinct Cornish language, is closely related to Breton and has enjoyed a minor revival in recent times, while the local accent is an exaggerated form of so-called “West Country” dialect. The Celtic heritage is perpetuated in folk festivals, especially such events as the Gorseth of the Bards and the Esethvos, a local version of the Welsh Eisteddfod. Cornish identity is symbolised by St Piran’s flag-a white cross on a black background- and by the Cornish national tartan, while nationalist sentiments have even spawned a tiny separatist party, Mebyon Kernow, dating back to 1951. Certain culinary traditions are also zealously guarded by the locals. Cornwall’s national dish, the Cornish pasty, once a staple of miners, and Cornish cream tea, with its cream-topped scones, are among the readily- recognisable and traditional edible products of Cornwall.
Cornwall’s beautiful landscapes, and especially its scenic coastline, have attracted visitors for many centuries, and more recently led to a less welcome influx of well-heeled second-home owners from the south-east of England. In a county with high unemployment and a preponderance of low-paid, often seasonal, jobs, locals have been increasingly priced out of the housing market, leading to much resentment and rising homelessness’. Some insular locals even have problems with “emmets”, temporary visitors who unwittingly disrupt daily life, such by inadvertently slowing down the flow of traffic.
Although never itself a Covid hotspot, Cornwall’s economy has been dealt a severe blow by the pandemic, which has markedly reduced tourist traffic to the county. At the same time, the Brexit trade deal has added to the woes of the fishing industry, by introducing red tape and adding to the costs of exports, which many Cornish fishermen see as a betrayal of their expectations. Maybe the G7 summit, by virtue of its being held in Cornwall, will help redraw attention to Cornwall’s economic potential after all and in doing so will provide a much-needed boost for the future.
Ashis Banerjee