Cornwall was once an independent country with:-
Its own language
~ Cornish was recognised as a language for the first time by an English government in 2005 after pressure from Europe – Cornwall is a European minority ethic group ~
An elected parliament
~ first recorded in Cornwall by the Greeks in the 3rd century AD, last sat 250 years ago - the Parliament building still stands in antient town of Lostwithiel ~
"When Julius Caesar recorded his first landing in the Isle of Britain he described ranks of Celtic tribesmen clad in “brythen” or tartan cloth, ~ their bright tartan cloaks flowing freely in folds from their shoulders, resembling the plaid of the Highlander, but pinned on both shoulders instead of one; certainly not Scots far from home! Caesar''s account in De Belli Gallica records that brythen or plaids were worn by the British Tribes, who became known as the Brythonic Celts – “The Tartan Celts”. Hence the derivation of the name "Briton": a Celtic word describing his chequered garb still surviving in the Gaelic word ''breacan'', and in the Welsh and Cornish "brythen" meaning tartan. The Cornish “mackerel” is “brythel" ~ the tartan fish! while we see in Brioc the “tartan-clad” saint................... ." Gwas Gwethnoc - Tony Morton-Nance - designer of the first Cornish Tartan