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Because they are

Doc Martin review: If I was Cornish I’d be cross – why are they all portrayed as bumbly, workshy idiots?

There’s a reason the place is one of the poorest areas of Europe. Take it from someone who knows, someone from just the other side of the Tamar.

14 thoughts on “Because they are”

  1. There’s also probably a “successful people get out” thing. Mining villages in Wales are horrible places because they’re full of the people who don’t have the drive/intelligence to get out. Thankfully, they’re gradually depopulating, something that should have been done decades ago.

  2. Question: is China Clay still strong in Cornwall?

    I know the Eden project is situated in a quarry site. I don’t know whether that occured because the industry is in decline or they’ve just moved on to different sites?

  3. So Much For Subtlety

    Probably because people like sneering at the feckless and workshy. It gives us warm feelings of moral superiority to think we are genetically and culturally better than others.

    And the Cornish are the only group that won’t slit your throat for doing so or come down with the full force of the law to destroy your career.

  4. When the Cornish Nationalists sent death threats to my wife they sent them in Cornish. She couldn’t tell if it was a threat or a flyer about radon gas.

    So not the smartest of peoples.

  5. Cornwall’s a pretty good example of where isolation restricts commerce. Long peninsular with a short border discourages trade with the rest of England. Somerset doesn’t suffer so much of a disadvantage, because people have to cross the county to get anywhere worth going, on the other side. So Cornwall’s economy is blighted by the primitive Zummerzetters being reluctant to cross the Tamar coz of trolls under bridges, an’ zat.

  6. The stigler
    While many of us have left, some further than others, that doesn’t mean all the ones that stayed lacked drive or ambition.
    On my occasional visits back what I’ve seen is some of the valley towns becoming commuter suburbs for larger places, this has been helped by reopening some of the old train lines. A few years ago one of the Cardiff to valley trains was one of the most heavily used trains running.

  7. bis,

    “Somerset doesn’t suffer so much of a disadvantage, because people have to cross the county to get anywhere worth going, on the other side. So Cornwall’s economy is blighted by the primitive Zummerzetters being reluctant to cross the Tamar coz of trolls under bridges, an’ zat.”

    But if you’ve already got to Devon (not Somerset), why would you bother carrying on? I’ve been to Cornwall. The inland bits are about as pleasant as Mordor and the coastal bits are nothing special. And the people. They’re not exactly unpleasant, but in tourist towns, you might think people would be a bit more hospitable.

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