Mebyon Kernow: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Mebyon Kernow, often MK (Cornish for 'Sons of Cornwall') is a political party dedicated to re-establishing a degree of autonomy in Cornwall, located at the western end of the south-west peninsula of Great Britain, currently administered as the south-westernmost county of England.

It was founded on January 6, 1951 at a meeting held in Redruth. Helena Charles was elected the party's first chair. The original aims of the MK were primarily socio-cultural and specifically, at their first meeting they adopted the following programme:

1. To study local conditions and attempt to remedy any that may be prejudicial to the best interests of Cornwall by the creation of public opinion or other means.

2. To foster the Cornish Language and Literature.

3. To encourage the study of Cornish history from a Cornish point of view.

4. By self knowledge to further the acceptance of the idea of the Celtic character of Cornwall, one of the six Celtic Nations.

5. To publish pamphlets, broadsheets, articles and letters in the Press whenever possible, putting forward the foregoing aims.

6. To arrange concerts and entertainments with a Cornish-Celtic flavour through which these aims can be further advanced.

7. To cooperate with all societies concerned with preserving the character of Cornwall.

By September 1951 they had officially come to a stance of supporting self-government for Cornwall, in what they hoped at the time would be a federal UK.

They currently describe their philosophy as based on being: 'Cornish, Green, Left of Centre, Decentralist'.

They won their first seat at local level on the Redruth-Camborne Urban Council in 1953. A schism in the early 1970s led to the formation of the Cornish Nationalist Party.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Mebyon Kernow were in essence a pressure group, with members being able to join other political parties as well. However by the 1970s they developed into a more coherent political party with members no longer allowed membership of other political parties. It was during this decade that they began contesting Westminster parliamentary seats as well as local government ones.

In 1979, in the first elections to the European Parliament, Mebyon Kernow were able to attract almost 10% of the vote in the Cornwall seat. This reflected and topped off a decade of steady growth for the party.

Mebyon Kernow continue to contest parliamentary seats, with little electoral success, and also local government seats, with a good degree more success. In the 2001 general election, MK polled 3,199 votes, or 1.3% of the Cornish vote (up from 0.7% in 1997)