Diary of a St Ivean

A telephone call from the AA.
'This is the AA."
"I don't have a car."
A silence, then:
Oh, does someone in your household have a car?"
"No."
A longer silence. I have an image of the man at the AA end of the phone searching his script for a response. But clearly there isn't one.
Lamely:
"Oh, well. Thank you anyway." Then he rang off.

*

A few days later a telephone call from a pleasant lady from the Daily Telegraph.
"We're ringing you because you're one of our regular readers."
"But I'm not one of your regular readers."
"Oh. That's funny because it says here you're one of our regular readers."
"But I'm afraid I'm not one of your regular readers."
"Have you never been one of our regular readers?'
"No."
"So you've never picked the paper up?"
"Oh, I've picked it up, but I've never been one of your regular readers."
"May I ask you why you're not one of our regular readers?"
"I have a different view of the world."
A chuckle from the other end of the phone. Then a last try:
"We can offer you a 56% discount on the paper..."
"But I'm not tempted."
This time a real laugh from the Daily Telegraph lady, but before I could ask her why on earth the Daily Telegraph was offering discounts to regular readers, she'd gone.

Eviction of migrant workers - Penwith must answer charge of discrimination

There has been no response from Penwith District Council to the questions raised here last week by The St Ivean and in the Cornishman's letter columns about the eviction of Polish migrant workers in Penzance.
Most councils would want to quickly refute any charge of discrimination. And there is no doubt that The St Ivean has raised serious questions about Penwith's policy and method of eviction. The St Ivean will now in the next few days put those questions directly to Penwith. There is a case to answer.

Exploitation of migrant workers

Some of the migrant workers labouring on West Cornwall's daffodil and vegetable farms are not being paid the minimum wage.

That's just one of the findings made by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) following a recent multi-agency investigation which has uncovered the different ways the workers have been exploited by some gangmasters.Operation Westport looked at the working and living conditions of migrant workers in West Cornwall.

A total of nine licensed gangmasters were found to be violating standards imposed by the GLA.

The gangmasters were supplying hundreds of mainly Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Bulgarian workers to pick daffodils and vegetables... more>

Diary of a St Ivean

[Monday/Tuesday] On the 8.05 am bus to St Erth to catch the train to Truro and the air is thick with what sounds like the twang of a variety of Australian English from local teenagers on their way to college in Penzance. It's quite remarkable how the use of that questioning (rising) tone, where every sentence is turned into a question, has been adopted across the age group. It's rather like the back-to-front baseball cap phenomenon; and quite how it spread across the globe is a mystery.

Also, there's much use of 'like' and 'Oh, my God!' This latter isn't reserved specially for situations where the speaker has been surprised or shocked by an awful event. Almost every utterance, however unremarkable or banal, is followed by a desperate cry of, 'Oh, my God!'

I once overheard a teenaged youth (he was wearing the baseball cap) talking on his mobile phone to a friend. The bus was arriving in Truro and he wanted to know if he could call on his friend for a cup of tea. When the friend acceded to his request, he responded with, 'Oh, that's brilliant mate. You're a legend.' A legend. And that's just a man who makes you a cup of tea. A legend.

Oh, my God!

Migrant labour conditions checked

Police and local authorities are carrying out visits to farms in Cornwall to check on conditions being offered to migrant workers.
As many as 50,000 people from other European states now live and work in the South West.
A survey of 500 employers in Cornwall revealed a large proportion rely heavily on migrant workers.

Penzance Job Centre said 74% claimed their firms would suffer or shut down completely without migrant labour... more>

EXCLUSIVE: St Ives School to become a Trust school?

News has reached The St Ivean of moves to make St Ives School a Trust school. Letters have apparently been sent to parents but nothing has yet appeared on the school's website. It seems that so far the idea has been discussed only amongst the schools that would form the Trust. There is some opposition.

Of course, this is a proposal the whole of the St Ives community will want to debate. Watch this space and post your views.