CardiffWalesMap

Not sure this is wise but........

The former deputy PM did a short piece for Newsnight where he visited the town where the EU flag never sets. It's everywhere and yet Ebbw Vale had the highest Brexit vote in Wales. It would seem counter intuitive or in less generous terms stupid? Well actually I'd see it rather differently now. That attitude would be one that patronisingly suggests that the poor should just be happy to live on the morsels they get and shouldn't ask any questions. Clearly many of the residents in the town felt the money had been wasted on vanity projects funded by unaccountable bureaucrats (rightly or wrongly). Still as Clegg realised what people really resented was the loss of the steelworks and everything that went with it. Not so much feeling 'left behind' as mourning what they'd left behind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-WEDoXx910

I got as far as 5 seconds before I sighed with frustration. Male voice choirs? Seriously? They're declining faster than our pubs and extinct coal fields yet the stereotype persists. Anyway...

More seriously, shouldn't Clegg being asking the more pertinent questions, such as why Wales has been eligable for such large amounts of EU funding? Why do places like Estonia have more electrified railways than Wales? Why have our steelworks closed when others in Europe remain open? Why do vast areas of Wales have such high unemployment levels?

Perhaps all those who questioned how badly that EU money has been spent should direct their anger to the Labour numpties in Cardiff Bay. Oh, and other than 1 term, how has Ebbw Vale voted over the last several decades? Oh yes, Labour. You get the politicians you vote for!

Those who voted to leave in the valleys deserve all the hardship that Brexit brings. They have no sympathy from me, Turkeys voting for Christmas.

At least our fair city was enlightened enough to vote remain. It's maybe this open, optimistic, forward looking attitude that is driving Cardiff on, a beacon of light for the rest of Wales whilst north of the M4 withers away

Sadly, speaking as an Aberdare boy myself, it's become pretty obvious that the Heads of the Valleys are economically non-viable and a total write-off (with the possible exception of Merthyr). From now on whatever economic development funding we can scrape together after Brexit should focus on hi-tech companies around our universities in Swansea, Newport, Carmarthen, Aber, Bangor and Wrexham, and improving infrastructure and transport links in those areas.

Preferably starting with the A44 to Aberystwyth, which is practically a goat track.

It goes back to the question about what to do with the valleys. The majority of it is not conducive to a modern economy - the extraction economy has been and gone.

What we need is a depopulation of the northern valleys with a shift to cardiff, carfilthy, zooport and lower RCT

Labour haven't been doing that well in those areas anymore. Trouble is that no other party has been able to capitalise on declining turnouts and apathy.

Frank wrote:Labour haven't been doing that well in those areas anymore. Trouble is that no other party has been able to capitalise on declining turnouts and apathy.

Let's just hope that we don't have another charasmatic leader coming along. Europe has had too many of those over the years. Nationalism is rearing is ugly head yet again.

That was an incredibly well-made and powerful piece of pro-EU propaganda. The script, editing, cast, cinematography, direction and production values were all top-drawer. The argument was very persuasive too. I thought that the students spoke eloquently and each made a number of very good points.

Clegg's case is based on an appeal to heart - to think of the children, of their futures. These bright young things are creatures of Blair and Merkel - they're at ease with either Aled or Ahmed. Why shouldn't they have the right to roam freely across Europe? And why should we stop their equivalents in Erfurt or Enschede coming to Ebbw Vale?

Ebbw Vale is booming compared to places like Abertillery and Tredegar, so maybe a more honest approach would have been to shoot the film in one of those towns to give a clearer indication as to how good being in the EU has been for Blaenau Gwent.

I expect Clegg will spearhead the campaign for a BREJOIN referendum.

I didn't see it as pro-EU at all. The only thing that bothers me is the claim about people wanting the 'old certainties' as if the problem is about the 'uncertainty' of the modern world rather than the disappearance of good dignified jobs and community cohesion.