It goes without saying that the people of industrial South Wales and of Merthyr Tydfil in particular have a spectacular and noble history. Hardened by the brutal conditions of the Industrial Revolution their fighting spirit and endurance was at the forefront of the battle for political and social reform throughout the British Isles.
Although church attendance had decreased when I was growing up in South Wales during the 1950's people still had principles and a moral code based on Christian ethics. People had dignity, they wanted to work, accepting welfare was a last resort, an embarrassment that was sometimes refused.
Attitudes in today's South Wales and Merthyr Tydfil have changed immeasurably and they give an insight into the behaviour of the modern, cynical, unprincipled political class.
It should act as a lesson to other constituencies (and other countries) who are falling into the trap of voting for politicians who, using class envy, promise welfare from cradle to grave paid for by 'the rich' in order to usurp and maintain power.
Since the election of Keir Hardie, the first Labour Member of Parliament in 1900, Merthyr Tydfil has been in the grip of the Labour party both locally and nationally. In the same period the town has descended from a global industrial powerhouse into a welfare dependent socialist Dystopia.
The key area statistics for Merthyr Tydfil are truly horrifying.
Unemployment 13.4%, average for Wales 8.4%, for Britain 8.1% (age group 16-24, 34.2%)
Economically inactive 29.0%, for Wales 27%, for Britain 23.5%
Job Seekers Allowance claimants 6.4%, for Wales 4.0%, for Britain 3.8%
Total benefit claimants a whopping 27.4%, for Wales 18.5%, for Britain 14.7%
Incapacity Benefit claimants 20.5% of working age people
7.9% of the unemployed have never had a job, 34% have out of work for 15 years and a staggering 54% out of work for 10 years
Child Poverty is a shameful 30%
GDP/Head s 64.4% of the EU average
Education performance is a disgrace with 22% leaving school with no qualifications compared to the Welsh average of 18% and the British average of 15%
Births to single teenager mothers are higher in Merthyr than the rest of Wales
Life expectancy is 10 years less than some areas of London.
The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation list 36% of areas in Merthyr Tydfil fall in the 10% most deprived areas in Wales. The majority of the areas in Merthyr Tydfil are more deprived than the rest of Wales.
The people have sacrificed their dignity and accept handouts of taxpayers money without embarrassment, believing the politicians' endless propaganda that it is their entitlement as victims of 'the rich'.
In addition to all this, the long suffering, law abiding, hard working people of Merthyr Tydfil have to endure anti social behaviour by feral children plus higher than average levels of drink and drug fuelled crime.
The leaders in charge of this social disaster are ideologically driven career politicians with no wealth or job creating experience. They are so devoted to their outdated and failed socialist ideology that they can't contemplate any solutions outside it or any alternative to it at all for that matter.
It must be reiterated that Labour have owned political power in Merthyr Tydfil for over a century including a recent 13 year period of unfettered parliamentary power. They try to blame others for the scandalous conditions in Merthyr Tydfil but they've had plenty of time to put things right, the responsibility is theirs and theirs alone.
The current steward of this depravity is Dai Havard MP, a devoted socialist with little or no experience outside the world of trade unionism and Labour Party politics.
A look through his bio's reveal that Dai Basra (named for his frequent trips to Basra under the cover of membership the Defence Committee) is a local boy who, after finishing his education spent a few years as a jobbing engineer, he then became a Trade Union researcher, then a Trade Union Education tutor, then a full time Trade Union official with the MSF union, now part of the communist run Unite.
To remind readers Unite is the strike happy trade union that brings misery to millions of hard working people and damages the British economy in the process. It also finances the Labour party out of its members subscriptions and is run by the self loathing communist sympathiser Red Len McCluskey.
Maybe Dai shares Len's admiration for the blood soaked tyrant Fidel Castro and maybe like Len he would prefer Castro's Cuba, where political parties are banned, the prisons are full of dissidents.
Maybe Dai Basra and Len can explain why tens of thousands of long suffering Cubans risk their lives in unseaworthy boats to escape that socialist Utopia in order to get to that bastion of inequality and unfairness called the United States of America.
Len McCuskey is a hypocrite of the highest order who is immune to the consequences of his actions, who also enjoys a six figure salary and a champagne lifestyle on the backs of his members hard work. Nice supporters you've got Dai.
Even blood soaked despots like Castro get a reality check sooner or later. He has accepted that communism has failed and he is in the process of dismantling the communist state he set up, sacking his public sector workers and opening up the economy to private enterprise.
Maybe Dai Havard could do the same for his constituents, if socialism failed in Cuba why would it succeed in Merthyr Tydfil. He's got nothing to lose. Unlike the dissidents in Cuba he wouldn't be put up against a wall and shot if he suddenly discovered his spine and spoke up for his constituents.
Its ironic that Dai Havard, who believes that the state should control society using taxation and regulation, sat on a Committee for Regulatory Reform while at the same time his political masters in Westminster and Brussels were churning out wealth and job destroying regulations by the thousands.
Dai Havard has been in Parliament for 11 years and unless the good people of Merthyr Tydfil come to their senses, he will remain there as long as he pleases. One would have thought that with his dedication to the socialist cause and after a decade in parliament, he would have progressed further than the back benches. Not a chance, Dai has not even made it to junior minister or a PPS.
To Ed Miliband and the remote political elite that control Dai Havard, Merthyr Tydfil is in the bag for Labour therefore Dai Havard only has only one function and that is to keep it there.
They do give him some crumbs off the table in the form of committee memberships. This keeps him occupied and gives him an excuse for some taxpayer funded travel.
Even then he can't behave professionally, reports indicate that he threw a tantrum on a recent taxpayer funded trip to the Falkland Islands because a horse riding trip he had been looking forward to had to be cancelled for scheduling reasons. What an embarrassment.
Even though its unlikely that he could hold a serious position in the real world of the wealth creating sector Dai Havard is paid handsomely for maintaining the status quo and keeping the Merthyr people on the plantation. It costs close to a quarter of a million pounds of hard earned taxpayer money for his pay, allowances and expenses, he has a below average voting record in parliament therefore he must be considered a monumental waste of money.
It doesn't end there for the hard pressed people of Merthyr Tydfil, Dai Havard has an equally expensive twin duplicating his uselessness in the Welsh Parliament. Dedicated socialist Huw Lewis AM.
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