I’m currently enjoying a few well-earned days of holiday relaxing in the furthest extremes of the south west, where more natives than I realised are in favour of independence.

The flag of St Piran apparently represents white tin flowing from black rock, or good overcoming evil, but whatever it means, they’re very proud of it and you’ll find it fluttering everywhere in Cornwall.

It's hard to imagine the hordes in Kent wanting to leave the UK. They’d never have the wherewithal to survive, though I’d argue there are a few folks in Medway who’ve developed a language all of their own.

I realise this neck of the woods has been far more successful than Kent in attracting visitors and the county is hugely dependent on tourism, but when they get people in they also know how to make them welcome and, at the same time, extract as much hard cash as possible.

Having such a picturesque, unspoilt and unusual landscape obviously helps in this mission, but they’re also far more united in their aims and how to achieve them.

Kent’s a larger, more disparate, county but it has also been appallingly mismanaged and misgoverned for decades, whereas Cornwall has become ever-more determined to promote its positives and encourage the wider population to thrive.

A good deal of the differences are undoubtedly down to funds, but it goes deeper than this and the political, social and cultural differences are so marked it’s hard to argue against them.

A fellow who took me mackerel fishing made a good case for his special Celtic roots to be recognised by some form of devolution leading to autonomy, probably in the form of a Cornish national assembly.

He reckons Cornish ethnicity was added to the census years ago and that Cornish people have already been recognised and granted minority status by the rest of Europe.

“Cornwall has become ever-more determined to promote its positives and encourage the wider population to thrive…”

I then lost his argument somewhat as he disappeared down a rabbit hole by claiming Cornwall is owed £20b from the UK government due to over taxation on tin production for 500 years and how, comparatively, Devon had been let off incredibly lightly.

But, however crazy you might consider the idea of Cornwall becoming its own entity you can’t question his conviction.

He tells me Cornwall plans to clamp down big time on owners of second homes in the county in 2025 and the new rules will apply right across the region. I told him about the towns in Kent which are proposing to introduce a tourist tax and he just laughed saying it was far too little, too late.

I don’t think we should let Cornwall start governing itself. After all, we don’t want another successful rival that close to home.

Oh, and apparently St Piran was also a fellow who loved a drink, a man after my own heart - although he did die falling down a well.