Cornwall has a boast this week and it has nothing to do with ice-cream or tides: we have made more than 2000 offers to house Ukrainian refugees. I am not surprised. The duchy is filled with second homes, and they are very often empty. Harboursides are dark in winter and the old town in St Ives is no more than a monied ghetto now.
Cornwall is now more of a business than a place, with an owner and a servant class
Since the war began it is often said that it is easier to offer refuge to those closest to you. The Polish don’t want Syrians, for instance, but they want Ukrainians. In Cornwall the opposite is true. A second homeowner offers his cottage to a Ukrainian family, and that is decent, but he will ignore the misery of Cornish families: of his neighbours, who he does not consider neighbours because all his relationships are transactional.
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