‘It’s about persistence’: Cornish devolution no longer a pipe dream as its champion bows out

There will be no great fanfare when Dick Cole steps down as party leader in a few days’ time.

“We’ll have an official handover at our party conference,” Cole said. “Hopefully it will be a nice event. We’ll go to the pub afterwards and have a few beers. I expect I’ll breathe a big sigh of relief.”

Cole has been leader of Mebyon Kernow (MK), which campaigns to win greater self-government for Cornwall, for 29 years, which is thought to make him the UK’s current longest-serving political party leader. Before he got the top job, he was press and campaigns officer.

“It suddenly dawned on me that for 80% of my adult life, I had been in a leadership role for MK, which is quite a lot,” he said. “Add on to that my council duties, my community duties, my part-time job [as an archaeologist] – it’s all been quite overpowering for a number of years.”

He wasn’t tempted to try to make it to 30 years or to his 60th birthday next spring. “It makes a lot of sense at the moment to go. We’ve got quite a lot of new members coming through. We’ve got someone who’s keen to step up. I don’t want to fret too much about something not ending in a zero.”

Cole was chosen as party leader in 1997, the year Tony Blair became UK prime minister. He became a borough councillor two years later. He heard he won the seat on the radio while working on the remains of a Cornish engine house. He now serves his home patch of St Dennis and St Enoder on Cornwall council.

Cole is no power-crazed dictator or tub-thumping orator. “MK is quite collegiate. We all work together as a team. I’m not the kingpin and everything I say goes. It’s totally different from that. I’m not someone who thinks I’ve got the gift of the gab. I don’t do the Blairite thing at all.”

But he has worked hard, often 70 hours a week or more, keeping on top of his various jobs and roles. “Most evenings I’m still doing stuff, laptop on the sofa. I’m there slogging away, doing my best, getting the messages out as best as I can. I think the role has been about persistence.”

That persistence seems to have paid off. When Cole’s political career began, the idea of meaningful devolution for Cornwall seemed a pipe dream.

Now Andy Burnham appears keen for more powers to be devolved to the far south-west of Britain and the idea of Cornwall becoming formally recognised as the fifth UK nation is not far-fetched. Interest in Kernewek, the Cornish language, is surging.

“We just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, pressuring the MPs, writing the letters. Hopefully people will feel we’ve moved the dial. We’re not talking about independence but we want devolution within the United Kingdom.

“We hope they [the UK government] will now come through with something that’s really meaningful and not just tweak local government and call it devolution.”

Cole met the Guardian at St Denys church near St Austell, built on the site of an iron age fort, before his departure on 24 October. It has spectacular views across a landscape shaped by the production of china clay, but there are also signs of deprivation that holidaymakers heading for the surfing beaches do not see.

“Cornwall is still one of the poorest parts of the United Kingdom,” Cole said. He flagged up the difficulty of local young people finding somewhere to live.

“There’s an imbalance between the haves and the have-nots.” He tries to remain optimistic about life in Cornwall and across the globe, he says. “But it’s hard not to worry.”

Tellingly perhaps, Cole struggled when asked who his current political heroes are. No British or US leaders sprang to mind.

He settled on Gwynfor Evans, the first member of the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru to become an MP in the UK parliament in 1966. “For him, it wasn’t about anything but doing good for Wales.”

He also admires the late German green activist Petra Kelly. “She was coming from a perspective of trying to make a big change in politics rather than someone joining an established party thinking they’re going to get into a position of power.”

MK is not huge. It has about 500 members, three members of Cornwall council and 25 members of other smaller councils. But there is now a youth branch, Kernow Rydh, and Cole believes the future is bright.

The new leader will be Michael Bunney, a teacher who works for Gorsedh Kernow, which promotes Cornwall’s Celtic culture. Cole is one of the organisation’s bards, his bardic name – Gwythyas an Tir – means Guardian of the Land.

Cole has been pleased at how generous political opponents have been since he announced he was stepping down. “People said they didn’t always agree with me but I know what you say always comes from the heart. People have been respectful.”

He will still have plenty to do. “I have the council work, still have the job and community work.” He’ll also finish a book on the history of a local brass band. “Don’t worry, I won’t be short of things to keep me busy.”