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The finger of shame is once again pointed at the valleys.
The latest in this seasonal ritual is a piece by Mark Easton, BBC’s Home Editor, which you can read here. The title, The Unbearable Sadness of the Valleys, is a clue to the rest of the piece, with the words “poverty”, “scratching a living”, “depression”, and “dying” featuring strongly. The message is reinforced by the choice of picture – a decade-old image of the steelworks being dismantled.
Inevitably there’s been a reaction within the valleys and beyond – Easton’s piece had generated 1,035 comments at the time of writing this and it also featured on today’s Good Morning Wales BBC programme. So is Mark Easton right that the valleys are “a grim emblem of … despair”?
Here are 3 reasons why he’s wrong – and 1 why he’s right.
There are high levels of poverty and disadvantage in the valleys
Mark Easton is bang-on when he highlights that Blaenau Gwent is top of every league table that you don’t want to be top of. There are high levels of poverty and disadvantage there and in the rest of the valleys too. He is also right to put the blame for these problems at the door of massive changes in the economy – not just the closure of coalmines and steelworks but also huge losses of manufacturing jobs in this (and previous) recessions. And, , he is right that there are very close links between long-term unemployment and mental ill-health.
But that’s where it ends. The rest of his piece is badly wrong.
Not everyone in the valleys is in poverty
For all the scale of the problems, not everyone in the valleys fits Mark Easton’s stereotype. In Blaenau Gwent, for all its problems, 6 out of 10 people of working age is in a job. And not any old job either – nearly 1 in 5 of them work in professional and managerial jobs – teachers, nurses, designers and chief executives. To describe the population as ‘scratching a living’ is, at best, inaccurate and at worst offensive.
Poverty is not exclusive to the valleys
High though levels of poverty are in the valleys, valleys communities do not have exclusive rights to it.
High levels of unemployment and worklessness exist across Wales and the rest of Britain, in our rural villages and big cities as well as the valleys. Indeed, Mark Easton could have saved himself a bus ride to Ebbw Vale and instead visited Newham, a London Borough with many similarities to Blaenau Gwent (see the table).
| Blaenau Gwent | Newham | Great Britain | |
| Percentage of population of working age in employment |
59.0 |
60.5 |
70.7 |
| Percentage of economically active who are unemployed |
14.5 |
13.2 |
7.9 |
| Percentage of working population in professional, managerial and associate professional jobs |
27.3 |
33.3 |
44.4 |
| Percentage of population of working age with no qualifications |
15.2 |
15.3 |
9.7 |
| Median gross weekly wage, full-time |
£414.90 |
£521.60 |
£508.00 |
| Percentage claiming out of work benefits |
25.6 |
15.4 |
14.1 |
| Jobs Density (ratio of number of jobs to population) |
0.44 |
0.41 |
0.78 |
| JSA claimants per unfilled jobcentre vacancy |
10.7 |
11.9 |
3.7 |
There are significant successes
For every failed regeneration plan highlighted by Mark Easton, there are plans that have been successful. The University of the Heads of the Valleys? New retail and leisure developments? Increases in the numbers of adults with qualifications? New arts centres? None of these feature in Mark Easton’s account, perhaps because they don’t sit with his version of events.
In countering Mark Easton’s article, I am categorically not trying to pretend everything in the valleys is perfect and smelling of roses. It is not. But equally, the valleys are not ‘a grim emblem of despair’ either. His piece is unfair and unbalanced, as explained above, and also deeply unhelpful.
- Who would want to live or work somewhere described as ‘grim’?
- Who would invest in a community that has been ‘abandoned’ or ‘marooned’?
- How does it feel to be told you are ‘scratching a living’?
I and many others feel insulted and angered by Mark Easton’s article. We need constructive action from the UK, Welsh and local governments to tackle the underlying problems in the valleys and other places like it – not easy jibes made on the basis of a bus trip.
Victoria Winckler is Director of the Bevan Foundation
I disagree with the above article. My partner is from Blaina and his Dad still lives there, and although the BBC piece suffers from the usual problems of hyperbole and possibly shaping people’s words to make them fit with the reporter’s argument- nonetheless he is right. Blaina is one of the saddest places I have ever seen. My partner was very lucky to get out. He was always an autodidact, and used to walk miles every day to get to the local library. His love for learning made him a black sheep, but everyone like him with the will and spark to succeed has escaped, and the only people left are too scared or hopeless to imagine that things will ever get better for them.
When we visit I am struck by the anger, despair and closed off nature of the residents. I know of one man who had 7 children, and 6 of them have now died of drugs related causes. The pubs are often full, but I know of people who do things on the sly or even avoid buying food, in order to afford a pint. People really are counting out their last pennies every week. The mention of the grub club was very revealing: children are being neglected and ill-fed because their parents simply don’t have the money to feed them (this was my partner’s experience as a child), and I am glad some of the mums at least have the determination to group together and do something about that. Also I would like to challenge your statistics. You write that “only” 14.5% of people claim unemployment benefit, but I bet at least as many are on incapacity benefit or similar. And of the 59% in work, how many of them have full time jobs that pay them enough that they don’t have to claim housing benefit or other top-ups?
None of this is to cast aspersions on the inhabitants of these places. They did not choose or cause the collapse of the local industries, so why should they feel any personal shame? But now they are stuck in dead towns and on balance the BBC did a good thing reporting about that, because I think the wealthier parts of the UK have no idea how bad it is.
I find your comments extremely insulting. I am the daughter of a research scientist and a teacher both originally from this area. Having completed a 4 year degree at Cambridge I returned to the area to be near my friends and family. I could not be described as scared or hopeless. I have an excellent job I have never been unemployed, I have never claimed benefits. I have never been made to feel like a black sheep for my love of learning and attended a school with a very nurturing and supportive environment. I have a large group of friends, none of them are unemployed. 80% of that group are university graduates with very good jobs and salaries, of the remaining 20% some have their own businesses started after completing further education courses. The others have worked their way up the employment ladder at their respective companies.
No one can deny that there are problems in the area which need to be addressed. This can be said for many places throughout the UK. I am very sorry that your partner had such a difficult beginning growing up in a family with little money and parents who did not support him academically, however, Before you leave comments I suggest you do some research of your own on the area instead of spewing so many tired old stereotypes.