Things you might not know about Cornwall

1. The Duchy of Cornwall & the county of Cornwall are not the same thing. Most of the land owned by the Duchy is outside Cornwall.

2. The Prince of Wales does not own the Duchy, he holds it from The Crown because he is heir to the throne. He cannot touch the capital value, he gets the income. Most of this income is re-invested or used for "good works".

3. The Cornish do not pay for the Duchess of Cornwall's hats. The happy couple get no money from the taxpayers, Cornish or otherwise.

4. The only Cornish people who pay the Duchy anything are its tenant farmers. The Duchy has the reputation of being a progressive and caring landowner. The Prince is known as an enthusiast for sustainable farming.

5. All poverty is relative. There are poor people in Cornwall just as there are in Sidney. No one knows if the inhabitants of Cornwall that have Cornish blood are poorer than those without Cornish blood.

6. About 50% of the population of the county probably have Cornish blood. The only people who seem to have a problem about this are the "western ghetto-ists". The rest of us rub along quite happily.

7. Cornwall enjoys democracy; we have all sorts of elections. What these elections show is that the voters of Cornwall are conservative with a small c. They have elected Liberals as their representatives for a long time now and don't seem likely to change. The nationalist party, the MK, regularly polls low numbers.

8. The most noticeable thing about the Cornish is that they are just like the rest of the UK.

9. I think the Cornish share my view that we (UK, British, English or Cornish or from the planet Zog) should not atone or apologise for anything. Nor do we think Australians should give their country back to its original inhabitants.

10. The trouble with opinions is that they are just that - opinions.