On the fringes of any nation the melting pot effect is less pronounced. The homogenisation of England did not permeate beyond the Tamar into the Cornish peninsular until the later half of the 19th century, and it is this fact that gives rise to a separate Cornish identity. In the rest of England the Celtic identity of the Britons was subsumed by the waves of Anglo-Saxon, Danish and Norman invasions, but the King on the throne of England has been the Cornish people’s overlord for some 1200 years. Even so, the Cornish language aside (of which there has not been one native speaker for 150 years), I wonder if this identity is any really any stronger that that of Yorkshire. A Yorkshireman has a distinct identity different from much of England but very few would not claim England to be the nation of their birth.

In the 19th century a Cockney and a Geordie meeting for the first time would have found great difficulty communicating, though they were speaking the same tongue, but both would have been sure they were living in England. England was until relatively recently a land of containing many regional identities and has only relatively recently started to become a blurry single entity. What is England and Englishness anyway? Is it drinking tea?, or eating roast beef?, or playing cricket? or a sense of fair play?, or belief in trial by jury?, or a particular sense of humour? If it is anyone of these I don’t see how the Cornish differ from the English.

Leaving aside these philosophical issues and returning to the realpolitik as sjc calls it the situation is clear. The Cornish nation ceased to exist some 1200 years ago and the duchy of Cornwall is irrelevant to the governmental administration of the region. It is administered by a county council fairly elected by the inhabitants many of whom are happy to call themselves English. Some are not, but some Scots nationalists dislike being called British, the fact remains that Scotland is in Britain (UK) similarly those Cornish people may dislike being called English cannot get away from the fact that as it stands Cornwall remains a county in England until a Cornish nation is re-established. Despite the aspirations of Cornish nationalists/separatists and despite the anachronistic state of affairs regarding the Duchy of Cornwall, Cornwall is currently a county in England and to fail to describe it as such is simply erroneous. It would be a misrepresentation of the facts to state otherwise. 

As for the arguments regarding the specific wording of this article, as long as it continues to state that 'Cornwall is a county of Great Britain' or similar avoidance of the words 'county in England', new readers will contineu to try to correct it back to 'county in England' because rightly or wrongly, that's what everybody apart from a small minority (and as far as Wikipedia is concerned I think it's a minority of one), perceive it to be. 00:41 Sep 10, 2002 (UTC)