[bigyagi]

yup, been there a few times. i have lived in many parts of the U.k. wales was once the heartland of coal-mining, and basically, coalmining was the major employer. whole towns relied on the coal-mine, and unfortuneately, back in "82", the then prime minister, maggie thatcher, decided to break the unions, and started with the coal-miners. very long strike, and very damaging. now, basically, coal-mining in wales is virtually non-existant, and they{U.K gov} actually import coal from other european country's. its sad to see so many community's utterly wasted, because there is nothing else there. U.K politics generally dictate, that all the major investment goes into england, and the net result is that the other country's like wales, ireland, and scotland, all suffer. been like that for ever.
how does that work you say? ok, i'll keep it simple, and short. general election time, to elect a new prime minister. in the U.K, there are approx 60 million people. in scotland, where i was born, there are only 5 million. northern ireland, about 2 million, and wales about 4 million.so 11 million people, but in england, you have 49 million, so you can see, it does'nt matter which way you vote, for the people of scotland/n.ireland, and wales, we never get the government we would want, and always end up with an english government, who obviously look after there own, and to be blunt, really do look down on the other area's of the U.K.
yes, i know scotland now has its own government, but its still controlled by whitehall, in london. they cannot make constitutional changes, and still have to abide by the ruling government.
out of all three, wales really has been handed the worst deal. there is little or no investment in the country, or its people.
very sad.