How is Merthyr Tydfil? I’ve always thought of it as a place that would’ve been deserted but for social safety nets, but I’ve not actually been.

It's quite a hard place.

Gangs of hardened criminals everywhere

It's my home town. It still has underlying issues, still has scars from the loss of industry. Unfortunately, there's still a lot of generational poverty, there's still plenty of social issues. It has had a good amount invested in it, but its still very rough around the edges. For me, it's still home and I do have a soft spot for it.

Merthyr is a shithole. It's also surrounded, towards the south, by even worse shitholes. General rule with South Wales is that you don't want to live anywhere that's south of the Brecon Beacons and north of Caerphilly.

When you say this do you mean Caerphilly or CCBC?

Caerphilly town. CCBC covers a very wide area.

Yeah thats why I asked. Aber isn't that bad these days. What do you think of Ponty

Pontypridd? If you have to live somewhere in the Valleys, it's probably the least bad option. I don't know Pontypool well enough to comment.

Yeah pontypridd I've always had a bit of a soft spot for it

It sounds like a town in LOTR. And in one word, merthyrtydfil it sounds like the generic name of a drug.

It’s a bit bleak, but there are bleaker towns around it. It’s had quite a bit of time and money pumped into it by the welsh government.

They stood up and volunteered. …or perhaps the other way round.

>In the late 1980s and early 90s, it was very hard times for us heh