Current Affairs Labour and Anti Semitism.......

[peteblue]

Maybe some, but I couldn't say I particularly like Blaenavon, Merthyr, Newport, Cardiff, etc. I know some sound people live in the Valleys, but geographically and culturally it's an industrial pit imo.

I've got friends who live in the Cynon Valley. Christ, what a dark, depressing place. I can feel my mood worsen as I drive up the A470 on my way to visit them. It's no wonder half the population is on the sick. It'd do for me.

It's such a massive displaced population surrounded by acidic bog, rewilding [Poor language removed] heaps, and Sitka mono-plantations. There are so few natural resources, I'd be reluctant to eat anything that came out of the ground there, and I even noticed a couple of days ago, whilst driving through, trucks of sawn softwood from Pontrillas in Hereforsdshire heading past Neath, after probably extracting from around there initially, as loads of raw timber gets extracted and passes Abergavenny to Pontrillas. Not having a decent low-tech mill around there seems a shocking waste of resource/opportunity to add value and employment. That's probably indicative.

Personally I love the valleys, even the decay. Some of the natural beauty, even with the tips, can be breathtaking. In the winter when the mist comes down it can feel like the rest of the world has just disappeared. I love the houses, the small towns and the people. My father and mother in law, both now sadly passed away, lived their whole lives in the same valley town, as did all their childhood friends and their families before them. Everybody knows everybody else and when I first went there, over forty years ago, life was completely different, and at a different pace, from the Liverpool I had left.

In terms of politics it’s virtually a one party state, Labour. Yet for all their years in power, I’ve never seen anything done to improve the lives of those who live in the valleys. Cardiff, Newport and Swansea get the attention and the money, while those in the valleys have seen industries and mines close, with little to replace them. They get by though, just. It all depends on what you want out of life I suppose, for while they may not have loads of money, their quality of life is as good as any, if sometimes it looks a bit grim to others. The valleys have been betrayed, by every single government and politician since the days that their coal powered the U.K., but on a sunny day there’s no finer place to be..........

 

[RobC]

"They've taken our coal, our water, our steel. They buy our houses and they only live in them for a fortnight every 12 months.
"What have they given us? Absolutely nothing. We've been exploited, controlled and punished by the English and that's who you are playing this afternoon."

Wales fly-half and captain Phil Bennett in 1977.

 

[Blue 1]

Personally I love the valleys, even the decay. Some of the natural beauty, even with the tips, can be breathtaking. In the winter when the mist comes down it can feel like the rest of the world has just disappeared. I love the houses, the small towns and the people. My father and mother in law, both now sadly passed away, lived their whole lives in the same valley town, as did all their childhood friends and their families before them. Everybody knows everybody else and when I first went there, over forty years ago, life was completely different, and at a different pace, from the Liverpool I had left.

In terms of politics it’s virtually a one party state, Labour. Yet for all their years in power, I’ve never seen anything done to improve the lives of those who live in the valleys. Cardiff, Newport and Swansea get the attention and the money, while those in the valleys have seen industries and mines close, with little to replace them. They get by though, just. It all depends on what you want out of life I suppose, for while they may not have loads of money, their quality of life is as good as any, if sometimes it looks a bit grim to others. The valleys have been betrayed, by every single government and politician since the days that their coal powered the U.K., but on a sunny day there’s no finer place to be..........

Decent post. The people, well, some of them, are among the nicest I've ever met. I'll not disagree about the betrayal by all parties, either. Feels like the whole area has been consigned to the scrapheap to me.

 

[Number_25]

In terms of politics it’s virtually a one party state, Labour. Yet for all their years in power, I’ve never seen anything done to improve the lives of those who live in the valleys. Cardiff, Newport and Swansea get the attention and the money, while those in the valleys have seen industries and mines close, with little to replace them. They get by though, just. It all depends on what you want out of life I suppose, for while they may not have loads of money, their quality of life is as good as any, if sometimes it looks a bit grim to others. The valleys have been betrayed, by every single government and politician since the days that their coal powered the U.K., but on a sunny day there’s no finer place to be..........

I was born into a council house. When I grew up, I distinctly remember the smell of damp and mould coming from the bedroom windows. As a toddler, I struggled with breathing difficulties - attributed to the state of the house.

During primary school, I remember being called to the front of class by my headteacher. She told me that the Observer were coming to interview me and my mother about improvements to my home, and the homes around me. I didn't know anything about it, but I sat there as my mother spoke about how this would be "massive" for my family, as it meant that my sister didn't have to share a bedroom with her brothers.

Within a couple of months, we had new windows, a new roof, and an extension built - which housed another bedroom as well as an actual kitchen.

To say that politics has failed South Wales would be a failure of understanding where we've come from. I owe everything I have to the state, and I will never forget that. If it wasn't for you, and other then working-age people, none of this would have happened.

My politics comes from the fact that I want this for every child.

 

[peteblue]

I was born into a council house. When I grew up, I distinctly remember the smell of damp and mould coming from the bedroom windows. As a toddler, I struggled with breathing difficulties - attributed to the state of the house.

During primary school, I remember being called to the front of class by my headteacher. She told me that the Observer were coming to interview me and my mother about improvements to my home, and the homes around me. I didn't know anything about it, but I sat there as my mother spoke about how this would be "massive" for my family, as it meant that my sister didn't have to share a bedroom with her brothers.

Within a couple of months, we had new windows, a new roof, and an extension built - which housed another bedroom as well as an actual kitchen.

To say that politics has failed South Wales would be a failure of understanding where we've come from. I owe everything I have to the state, and I will never forget that. If it wasn't for you, and other then working-age people, none of this would have happened.

My politics comes from the fact that I want this for every child.

Yes there was a big programme to upgrade in the mid 70’s, council owned and privately owned terraced houses were all getting grants to extend and add a bathroom/bedroom. It even brought work with it, for a while, but then the money started to run out....

 

[Number_25]

Yes there was a big programme to upgrade in the mid 70’s, council owned and privately owned terraced houses were all getting grants to extend and add a bathroom/bedroom. It even brought work with it, for a while, but then the money started to run out....

I was born in the 1990s.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Yes there was a big programme to upgrade in the mid 70’s, council owned and privately owned terraced houses were all getting grants to extend and add a bathroom/bedroom. It even brought work with it, for a while, but then the money started to run out....

To bastardise the saying, it all seems a bit giving a man a fish rather than teaching him to fish. Surely the problem was that what used to bring the region an income was no more, and nothing had emerged to take its place?

 

[tsubaki]

To bastardise the saying, it all seems a bit giving a man a fish rather than teaching him to fish. Surely the problem was that what used to bring the region an income was no more, and nothing had emerged to take its place?

Nothing was allowed to take its place; it was easier and cheaper to do everything else overseas.

Even what appears to be the main employment there now (call centres) only exists because the British generally didn’t accept foreign voices when seeks no advice so firms moved it back to the cheapest places here.

 

[peteblue]

To bastardise the saying, it all seems a bit giving a man a fish rather than teaching him to fish. Surely the problem was that what used to bring the region an income was no more, and nothing had emerged to take its place?

That indeed was and still is the issue.....

 

[peteblue]

Nothing was allowed to take its place; it was easier and cheaper to do everything else overseas.

Even what appears to be the main employment there now (call centres) only exists because the British generally didn’t accept foreign voices when seeks no advice so firms moved it back to the cheapest places here.

Even that is Cardiff, Newport, Swansea etc, very little in the valleys.....

 

[Number_25]

Nothing was allowed to take its place; it was easier and cheaper to do everything else overseas.

Even what appears to be the main employment there now (call centres) only exists because the British generally didn’t accept foreign voices when seeks no advice so firms moved it back to the cheapest places here.

The NHS is our main employer, your point is still valid.

 

[Number_25]

To bastardise the saying, it all seems a bit giving a man a fish rather than teaching him to fish. Surely the problem was that what used to bring the region an income was no more, and nothing had emerged to take its place?

This was the entire premise around the, much chastised, coal not dole campaign.

The consensus in this area was that coal was a dead end, but that without it no other employment is available. Nobody listened, and alas we find ourselves in the place we are today.

This is one of the only reasons as to why I am less willing to criticise New Labour is because I saw with my own eyes the vast difference between that moderate form of socialism, and the absolute disregard the Tories have for the area.

As for a long-term solution, I honestly don't know what it is. We live in capitalism, in which to participate you are required to have capital. Without employment, there is no capital, and thus people are unable to participate within it. It has nothing to do with lack of want, or an inability to do - it's a continuous source of frustration.

 

[peteblue]

This was the entire premise around the, much chastised, coal not dole campaign.

The consensus in this area was that coal was a dead end, but that without it no other employment is available. Nobody listened, and alas we find ourselves in the place we are today.

This is one of the only reasons as to why I am less willing to criticise New Labour is because I saw with my own eyes the vast difference between that moderate form of socialism, and the absolute disregard the Tories have for the area.

As for a long-term solution, I honestly don't know what it is. We live in capitalism, in which to participate you are required to have capital. Without employment, there is no capital, and thus people are unable to participate within it. It has nothing to do with lack of want, or an inability to do - it's a continuous source of frustration.

One issue is transport. While the Welsh cities are reasonably well served, the valleys lost their railways and the roads down some of the valleys just cannot take large lorries. So they have the M4 running along the bottom, the heads of the valleys road along the top, the road from Merthyr down the Cynon valley and the road from Newport to Abergavenny, the rest aren’t up to it really......

 

[roydo]

One issue is transport. While the Welsh cities are reasonably well served, the valleys lost their railways and the roads down some of the valleys just cannot take large lorries. So they have the M4 running along the bottom, the heads of the valleys road along the top, the road from Merthyr down the Cynon valley and the road from Newport to Abergavenny, the rest aren’t up to it really......

They did build a plant near Blackrock (?) that refurbishes the engine cover things for planes, massive units on 747's and the like. Went there to natter about their pension scheme, years ago, and it was literally the only valley road that could just about cope with the low loaders delivering them there.

Was all part of the regional generation plans, but as you say, geographically, the area is a challenge to get any meaningful builds up and running.

 

[peteblue]

They did build a plant near Blackrock (?) that refurbishes the engine cover things for planes, massive units on 747's and the like. Went there to natter about their pension scheme, years ago, and it was literally the only valley road that could just about cope with the low loaders delivering them there.

Was all part of the regional generation plans, but as you say, geographically, the area is a challenge to get any meaningful builds up and running.

Did you mean Blackwood.....