To think wales is a huge problem that no one ever talks about?

[Cocklodger]

Right now Theresa May is cracking down on no win no fee solicitors
Mainly south Wales, in particular the valleys.
Back years ago when the mines were shut down rightfully there was nothing left to replace it. Nothing at all, it killed thousands of jobs, which was to be expected, but in exchange there was no new businesses, no back ups, nothing. And it's only gotten worse since, poverty is high, benefit claimants are quite common
Public transport is awful to say the least and if you can't commute to Cardiff by some means, you're screwed, most can't afford cars and if you're in a public transport black spot then you're severely limited to warehouse operative positions which have over 100 applicants in one to three days. Meanwhile house prices in Cardiff are rising, I think in 40 years we will have a new London.
In the valleys most looks grey, worn out and pretty dead to be honest. Where I live there are a few car dealerships and a train station, which is more like a bus stop with tracks next to it than an actual station and the nearest station with people actually manning the booths is pontypridd (45mins away by train) I spent years working as a volunteer for an agency that helps people with problems (poverty related) such as MH issues, finding work, food bank referrals and the like. I saw it every single day, people wanting to work but seldom getting anywhere.
There are articles and documentaries about it, but I never see them talked bout on here or elsewhere really, aibu to think that Wales is a big problem that no one really talks about?

I think it's a fair assumption that somebody who sees stats and then paints a picture the way you did in your original post is narrow minded. You didn't come on here and just say well here's the actual stats for the area did you.

bagel I do think that money could have been put to better use, in the south at least.

I don't think it's just wales. The isssue of being isolated geographically is the same in coastal towns. www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2013/oct/17/coastal-towns-problems-britain-deprivation-population i don't know if I'd push for my kids educational attainment if the result was they'd move a minimum of two hours away tbh but that's essentially the reality.

I bloody love this song.

A band in despair for their country.

But many in the valleys lost mining and manufacturing jobs and discovered bad backs that stopped them ever working again. Their children left school and discovered they had depression that prevented them working. Their children have more hoops to jump through for their benefits but it wouldn't cross their minds to look at jobs 30 mins down the road in Cardiff.

I'm sorry but no way is this post an "observation" it is a typical goady post about people on benefits. As I said before they are reasons why people can't "just travel to Cardiff"

It is an observation. Had the mines not closed the miners wouldn't have left them. There must be something going on for such a proportion of their 16-25 year old children to be unable to work through depression - far far more than in other non-ex-mining areas. And yes, careers advisers going into schools and colleges found the majority of school leavers had given no thought to looking outside of their town for work.

Totally agree blanche.

Thanks Squiggle and serious it was the money side of things that I was thinking about - it must cost a lot to have everything in 2 languages, although technology (email, websites etc) must reduce it to a certain extent, I suppose.

Do most people reckon the Welsh Assembly do a fairly good job of using their devolved powers?

bagel I don't know if many people are that happy with the Assembly. I have family in NE wales and there are moans that all WG cares about is South Wales. This could just be perception of course but a hell of allot of people of all backgrounds think this! Though NE Wales is a funny part of the world that looks much more to Merseyside/Cheshire/Manchester as its "capitals" and Cardiff could be the moon for how poor the links are between north and south Wales other than 1st class luxury dining trains mainly used by Welsh assembly members!

There are some things that I think the Assembly has done brilliantly. And then there are others that have me tearing my hair out.

What about North Wales? I live in North Wales and all the emphasis is on how hard south wales have it. People seem to forget North wales exists. It seem wales =south wales

Indeed Blanche - I grew up in NE Wales, and have only once been to Cardiff. Chester was where we went for department store shopping, Liverpool for Christmas shopping or big items of furniture. Although Dad did go to Wrexham for the football.

Parts of NE Wales are OK transport wise i.e. if you live near the A55, but then that is the main route to Ireland. If it was in S England, that would be a motorway.

I do think that part of the problem is that benefits pay the same as working for low wage jobs.

I am a low earner and I would earn only marginally less if I gave up and signed on - plus I'd benefit from free prescriptions and free swimming etc etc.

I don't - because I think working is important.

This may get me flamed, but I think benefits need to be less generous - enough to live and feed yourself, but not for luxuries. This would mean people wouldn't just live off them for generations.

I feel like a woman in a meeting of engineers here! Three posters so far have pointed to the fact that it is impossible to sustain enough jobs of the right sort to provide for the size and skills profile of the population of South Wales (and a nod to North Wales, but it's problems are different - it never had a huge influx of population for industrial reasons). We can argue about what statisticians do, who is being rude or narrow-minded or what data politicians use but the OP asked a sensible question which all those discussions ignore.
Does anyone disagree that South Wales' population arises from its industrial history and is now too large to allow prosperity for all?!

Why would its population be too large to sustain a successful economy? That makes no sense.

I think benefits need to be less generous - enough to live and feed yourself, but not for luxuries.

I don't think they are especially generous. How about getting employers to pay a living wage instead? Or have proper training schemes for young people? There's always enough money for CEOs to pay themselves exorbitant salaries, far far in excess of what they can pretend to earn.

huppo so what do you propose? Forced large scale movement of people? How? To what jobs?

How about getting employers to pay a living wage instead? Or have proper training schemes for young people? There's always enough money for CEOs to pay themselves exorbitant salaries, far far in excess of what they can pretend to earn.

This

i have relatives in the valleys. those on minimum wage jobs are much better off relatively, than where we live in the south of england. the cost of living is so low in the valleys that they are to own houses and run cars. My son in comparison (who has an MSC and is doing a banking job on more than minimal pay) will never be able to buy a house in the south and is struggling to rent, even a cheap flat share.

If you have an open economy, if you make it hard for employers they really will go elsewhere. I don't like it but it's a fact.
The reality is a large population can't stay where there aren't many jobs and remain prosperous. Unless and until we decide to have a closed economy (it ain't gonna happen) workers have to go where the work is. No-one can complain that a Bulgarian has come all the way to Tredegar to work if they won't go to Walsall themselves!
And having a large population does not guarantee prosperity. There needs to be something productive to do.

1st class luxury dining trains mainly used by Welsh assembly members

Good Lord
Have you ever caught a North-South train?? 200 miles, 4 hours minimum, sometimes 7 with 2 changes. Filthy Arriva trains with tiny seats, they lose your reservation so standing room only until Chester, no food at all between Holyhead and Shrewsbury when the food vending trolley comes in (hurray! ), ticket inspectors that lock themselves in with the driver when the feral youths get in the train between Rhyl and Colwyn Bay.

Luxury my ass

I live in rural North Wales. There are very few jobs, and many of the ones that are here are zero hours service jobs which appear for the summer. Our post offices are closing, the libraries are closing, the magistrates court has gone, the council has withdrawn to another location. I have a very average job, and will hang on to it for grim life, because if it goes I'll have pretty much zero other options.

I think the government has cut funding to the local councils by such vast amounts that its really hard for them to operate without cutting services to the remoter communities, but they are already some of the most deprived. I worry for my DD, the quality of her education and the opportunities she may struggle to access.

ohto Hey? I know the service between north and south wales is generally shit but you have never heard of the "business" class daily service? Mainly used by AMs...

www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/PremierServiceMenu/

www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/BusinessClass/

I do think it's entirely fair to say the population of the Valleys results from the industrial past. Our valley was a few farms until the mines opened. Then it was a thriving community with eleventh hundred chapels, a station, coffee shops and a youth club. All gone now.
My parents generation mostly left if they could. Off to university on a grant and then on to professional jobs.
I do take issue with people accepting the mines were finished so readily. Yes Scargill must take a large proportion of the blame but at the time of the strike, if you'd given the coal industry the same subsidies that were given out to the nuclear industry, you could have shipped the coal to Australia and given it away. And still had money left over.
There was never a plan for fixing any industrial area. The govt created areas that were blighted. Moving from somewhere poor whilst I'm benefits is difficult and if you create communities without aspiration then you get to where they are.
Wales is a country of extremes - heavy industry in the South, rural poverty elsewhere and pockets of seaside towns that made a living for some of the year. Getting anywhere is difficult outside the M4 corridor.
There's no one policy that works everywhere in Wales.
Places like Port Talbot look at steel works moving to the Netherlands. They hear the government citing EU rules over state subsidies. And they vote to leave the EU. They vote in Neil bloody Hamilton as an A.M. Something's gone very wrong there.
The funding for companies to come in is short term, for big projects that will 'transform' an area. It never works.

*apologies for random typos as on phone with fat fingers and dictatorial auto correct. Eleventy and on benefits are two I can see.

heron benefits have been cut to the bare minimum, there's plenty of people in Merthyr reliant on local volunteer run food banks to be able to eat. There's a definite increase in homeless people.

The problem is not that benefits are too high but that wages are too low and there are too many 0 hour contract jobs.