Wealth is an important dimension of power. In Devon and Cornwall it’s not always controlled by those within the region. Scrutinise last week’s Western Morning News’ top 150 businesses in Devon and Cornwall and you’ll see that of the top ten, two are foreign-owned (Princess Yachts, originally founded in Plymouth, and Imerys), one owns a former public utility (Pennon Group), and one is a regional company with a UK-wide parent company (Babcock). The other six are based in the region, and together they employ a little under 7,000 workers. Significant investment comes from outside the area, such as ownership of Exeter airport by the Midlands-based Rigby Group.

The china clay industry has seen ownership change from over 42 companies in Cornwall in the 19th century to the single ownership by Imerys today. The acquisition of local clay company, Goonvean, by Imerys earlier this year, completed this process. When Imerys switched investment to Brazil it led to 800 job losses in Devon and Cornwall in 2006. Power has moved globally. 

The main shareholder of Goonvean, Lord Falmouth, represents a traditional source of power, owning 40,000 acres of Cornwall. Aside from the more famous Tregothnan Estate, a substantial part of this lies in the mid-Cornwall clay country. Opponents of the incinerator at St Dennis pointed out that the land being used was leased to the council by Lord Falmouth. There is also the Duchy of Cornwall itself, although its land ownership in the county is half that of Lord Falmouth’s. More substantial is the 70,000 acres owned in Devon.

There are notable examples of more recent business growth by companies with a strong local identity, such as St Austell Brewery and Warrens Bakery. There are also several locally-based individual entrepreneurs and developers. The former includes Plymouth businessman Chris Dawson, who rose to 77th place in the Sunday Times Rich List for 2014. Starting with a market stall, and going on to build a major retail company, Dawson has been described as the south west peninsula’s first billionaire. His proposals to develop a new centre in Plymouth are reported to herald the creation of 450 jobs.

The power of developers has been a mixed story over the years. The collapse of Peter de Savery’s property company in 1994 was a significant example. Machiavelli noted that those exercising power requires good fortune, a reminder again of the dangers of hubris.

The historian Lord Morgan commented that former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, “seemed a political colossus,” but, “as times became tough following the Iraq imbroglio, he became an exposed solitary victim . . . Blair discovered, like Lloyd George and Thatcher before him, that British politics do not take easily to the Napoleonic style.”

Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset, return 31 MPs to the House of Commons. Some hold ministerial or other office, although none are full members of the Cabinet. When it comes to challenging and scrutinising the Executive, it may be members of Select Committees who hold greater power. This would put MPs such as Sarah Wollaston and Andrew George (both members of the Health Committee, the former its recently elected Chair) to the fore.

Local government remains a source of political power, although one considerably weakened over many years. An important question for the future is whether and how local powers might be regained.

Politics provides a very good illustration of the tenuous basis upon which power can rest. Writing in 1948, Winston Churchill recalled how in May 1940, “I acquired the chief power in the State, which henceforth I wielded in ever growing measure,” but five years later: “I was immediately dismissed by the British electorate from all further conduct of their affairs.”

Consent is generally a stronger basis of power than is coercion, as many erstwhile power-holders have come to learn. Isaac Foot noted, in July 1935, at an event to celebrate his twenty-five year association with the Bodmin constituency: “It is upon the loyalty of what John Milton called the ‘common people’ that I depended.”