Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
Scargill was an idiot for not holding a ballot which he probably would have won. About ten years earlier Ted Heath’s Government were, effectively, beaten by the miners and I’ve always thought that the Conservative Party were bent on revenge after that and that the miners days were numbered once Thatcher won her landslide in 79 which was then backed up by a bigger win in 83.

It’s fair to say that mining was into its final phase at the time of the 84 strike and it would have gone the way it did if the strike hadn’t have happened, but there was no need for the situation to have been handled the way Thatcher did. There could have been a gradual phased closure with more thought and sympathy given to what was going to be left behind when the mines closed.

I can only speak for the Rhondda really and
it does has outstanding natural beauty, but it doesn’t have a great deal else in its favour. It’s an area and community which has clearly seen better days - as I said before, it wasn’t as simple as just closing the mines, it was all of the other things that disappeared with them.
This is broadly what I think.

I'm generally optimistic about the Valleys. They are exceptionally, at times breathtakingly beautiful. I thing the heads of the valleys need to look to this more and tourism and the like. This is slowly happening.

Lower down they need to look to Cardiff, and places like Ponty can become a de facto suburb of Cardiff. No bad thing. Indeed my ex (very much a Cardiff girl) is out in Ponty tonight. I don't think that's happened before.

Focus on the larger towns like Ponty, Merthyr and Blackwood etc and good transport links. I'm not s fan of working from home at all - I think it's devastating for society...but..hybrid working of 2/3 of days in an office or hub could benefit some towns. The times of each small town having an employer with 1000 jobs is gone. Not just here but across the western world.

Too many councils too. They don't work together enough, and are too suspicious of Cardiff when in reality we are just one economic region.

I'm optimistic tbh.