Pre-coffee moment of reflection

I grew up in Penzance with a passion for Cornwall. I loved it and I still live here. And there is a lot still to like. But the gradual change year on year chipping away at the character of the place (bigger roads, more supermarkets, standardisation of towns) means that it is a very different Cornwall now. Many of those changes have come about for economic reasons, in particular tourism, and I'm sure they have benefited some of the people here. Yet we still have large unemployment, associated social problems, a hefty crime rate and even with those changes that have altered the character of the place I suspect much of the population don't see the financial benefit.

The changes come about incrementally. Just one new road, one more shop closing in town, one more car park - on their own the differences may be marginal. And when they happen so slowly we get used to them, we adapt and they become the new normal. For the younger population of course, it's their baseline, they grow up in it and why would it be any different. Just as it was for me in the 70s and 80s. But when they get to my age they may have similar feelings to me - 'do you remember that glorious summer back in 2020, when we could cycle on the roads without fearing for our lives? When we could hear birds and smell flowers, without the fencing, the drone army, Pollution Cloud B34, the super-cameras and gated beach system, and when they had that funny system of 'voting' for things.'

We're always on the look-out for that definitive point of change. When will the world end? When is the moment of reckoning? Yet with incremental change it happens by stealth, it's always happening and we let it happen.

Change on the other hand can be good. I don't want to go back to the past, I like moving forward. And this seems like a real opportunity for Cornwall. An opportunity to be proactive, build a bold long-term future, not simply for short-term economic gain, but with relevance to the huge current and future issues. Normally such a crisis as this is capitalised upon by those in power for the benefit of those in power. Please let's try not to let that happen again.