Two news stories have ocme out this week about where i am/will be living. My internship in Kirsty Williams' office comes to an end today, but yesterday we found out that people in the county of Powys, where Brecon is located, has been found to be the happiest place in all of the UK :)

The top 5 places, that are happiest in the UK are

1. Powys
2. Manchester
3. West Lothian
4. Cumbernauld and Kilsyth and Monklands
5. Macclesfield

Whilst the bottom 5 places are

1. Edinburgh
2. Cynon Valley and Rhondda
3. Amber Valley and north east Derbyshire
4. Clydesdale; Cumnock and Doon Valley; Kyle and Carrick
5. Swansea

So as my internship is coming to an end, i will be returning home to Barnsley, where it has been announced today that it is one of the towns with the highest levels of people who are clincially obese



Currently 10.8% of the people in Barnsley are obese, the same as in Wrexham, the full list can be seen below;

Shetland - 15.5%
Torfaen - 13.9%
Blaenau Gwent - 12.5%
Neath - 11.9%
Caerphilly - 11.1%
Rhondda - 11.1
Barnsley - 10.8%
Wrexham - 10.8%

So 5 places in Wales, are in the top 6 and yet despite this people in Powys are the happiest in the country

We were in Yastradgylis today for one of our summer surgery programmes, and fortunately the surgery coincided with the opening of the town’s new, improved library. We were there for over and an hour and a half and I only heard one complaint about it – that the books were the same as before.

Sometimes I don’t understand why people complain. Yes we all have the right to freedom of speech, but is complaining for complaining sake worth the while in the first place? Yes there are problems in the world, and problems in each of our communities, but there is a limit to what our elected representatives can do, after all despite what people may think, they’re only human. And some things are to big to solve on our own, and to expect an instant result for a complaint; is with out a doubt one of the strangest things that people expect for our elected representatives.

So that’s freedom of speech done (for now); now on to the public at large and what exactly they think of our councillors, MPs and AMs. Why exactly do people fail to understand that all the important decisions do not take place in the chambers, at large, at which they sit? Is it poor education or is it because The Sun newspaper is telling them everyday?

Just because Parliament and the various devolved governments aren’t sitting at the moment doesn’t mean that the politicians who sit in them are on a permanent holiday. MPs, AMs, Councillors, they work throughout the year on your casework; when you send a letter to one of them, they work tirelessly to find a solution for you, stay in contact with you and do everything in their power to get a result for you.

So I’m back to the beginning; why do people complain? Well 99% of the time, it’s because they need help. They need advise, assistance, they’re in trouble and they turn to the people that they’ve entrusted with their votes. They’re the people who are looking for answers as to why something has happened, something that usually doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

And I guess for the other 1% of the time, it’s because they can and they’re bored...but of what is for you all to work out as I simply do not know, nor do I really care. Instead of thinking of an answer to that I’ll spend my time helping the 99%.

Monday 28th/ Tuesday 29th - AKA The days of contrasting weather

So on Monday we were in Knighton delivering leaflets for Kirsty Williams – the weather sunny and hot and easily a nice 25 degrees
And then the rain came, and that started the bad weather we’ve all pretty much seen over the last 24 hours. Fortunately I've missed the main rain showers as I've been inside. Yesterday I got to my gran’s house earlier than normal which meant I was able to watch the monsoon style rain from my bedroom, whereas if id been coming back form the office at the normal time, I would have been caught in the lovely storm. And then of course it shifted for the rest of the evening – either it was like a monsoon, or it was the calm before the...well monsoon to keep the metaphor going.
And so Tuesday – the weather was...well pretty much back to a British summer, consisting of rain, rain and more rain. Fortunately we were in the office!

Saturday 26th July

Well today was my first day off and as such I enjoyed a nice relaxing morning doing as little as possible , although I was woken up by army helicopters that kept flying over head. In the afternoon I took advantage of the fantastic weather we had and took a walk from the bottom of the road my garn lives on, onto the canal and then into Brecon itself, before going along the promenade;

Thursday 24th July

Well since these aren’t being published on the actual days they were written, anyone who has read my blog should at least in theory know the answer – Yes Mr Cameron was at the Royal Welsh Show, and no we didn’t go.

Wednesday 23rd July

Do we stay or do we go?

We learnt today that David Cameron MP (or C**T as I call him for short) will be at the Royal Welsh Show tomorrow...so the question is do we go there as well, so that there is a good quantity of lib dems to counter act the evil Tory presence, or do we stay in the office so that we can get on with our very important case work?

However for the record David Cameron will likely spend just a few hours there, whilst Roger Williams MP and Kirsty Williams AM, the 2 Liberal Democrat politicians who represent Brecon and Radnorshire were at the show for hours both on Monday and Tuesday, and Kirsty has spent today at the show as well, and the two of them have been attending meetings that greatly affect the constituency, as well as spending time with constituents who have dropped by the stall.

Tuesday 22nd July

I’m so tired  As I write this to you all its 20:41 on Tuesday afternoon, although of course you wont read this for at least a few days (or maybe less if I can blag some internet access at work!!!). Anyway today I've been at the Royal Welsh Show, which for those of you who haven’t heard about it (which included me until last week) is the largest agricultural show in Europe and attracts around 200,000 people over a 4 day period (although this figure is based on last year where after heavy rain, made the site was more like the Somme).

So for those of you who haven’t been to the show, it’s basically in two parts. There’s the agricultural side which includes all the competitions and there is the stall side, and even within the stall side there is 2 separate parts. There are the mountains of local craft stalls selling everything you could ever think off – from tractors to dog pillows, and then there is the side where the stalls aren’t selling so much as there getting you to listen.

So in other words the second side is like the exhibit and conference, and just like conference the aim is to get as much free stuff as possible.
There were only 2 drawbacks to my time there, 1) I was working so didn’t have that much time to go and explore all the stalls or get much free stuff, and 2) we were practically opposite the evil Tories (I’m sire there are some nice tories in the country but as of yet I haven’t found that many, or at least not ones who work for the party). So to avoid the traffic we (I got a lift up to the site with my boss and a couple of other people) left Brecon around just after 7.45am (which meant I got up at 6.30am, which would have been fine except for the fact that the night before I couldn’t get to sleep, and so I had only had a few hours sleep). We got to the site with no problems at all and were at the lib dem stall, which we were going to be running for the day by 8.30am, with the site opening at 9.00am.

The weather in the morning was cloudy and quite cool which made the impression that the day would be cool and a relatively nice day to be out. Instead the weather had a surprise for us – it was bloody boiling. Now I’m not complaining that were finally having temperatures that should be seen in July but by mid afternoon it just became to hot to stand outside on the pavement between the stalls so we retreated to the canvass covering our stall. But that was in the afternoon, we spent the morning handing out leaflets that had been produced for a campaign that is being led by Roger Williams MP.

The campaign relates to the high cost of petrol, but specifically it relates to rural petrol stations, like the one’s seen in Brecon and Radnorshire. You see, whilst the cost of petrol in urban areas is very high, lets say for example it costs on average £1.19 to buy a litre of petrol in a city centre (like Cardiff for example) it would cost £1.23 from a petrol station, from the same company, in a petrol station in Brecon (which is less that an hour away by car, to Cardiff).

So, why is this? Well it costs more to transport the petrol to the rural areas; the rural areas that have little choice of where to buy petrol from and as a result people living in rural areas pay on average at least 3-4p higher than those people living in urban areas. But there is a solution – and EU law which allows governments to have a rebate in rural areas so that the price of petrol can be the same as in urban areas. When the last finance bill went through Parliament an amendment was offered by the Lib Dems to enact this EU law. The Labour party voted against it, whilst the Conservatives (who claim to be a party for rural areas, as well as urban areas) didn’t vote at all.

Monday 21st July

I had some free time before work started, so I took a little walk around the town centre, and found where my granddad’s chemist used to be.
(its the one on the left)

So, work was interesting to say the least; filled with work....surprisingly. Tomorrow I’m at the Royal Welsh show, doing what I’m not exactly sure but now I’m sleepy, which is strange when you consider its only 21.10.
Correction its now 21.15 and I’m not sleepy, which is strange as I've just learnt that I've got to get up at 6.30am tomorrow 

Sunday 20th July
Day 2, or day 1 if u wish to count that way, but that doesn’t really matter, all that matter is that today has been my first full day here in Brecon. I would love to tell you that my day has been full of adventures but truth to be told I've spent the day relaxing and doing as little as possible. As I cope without the internet to constantly check on facebook, I’ve spend the day beginning to watch through the mountain of DVDs I’ve brought with me to keep me from going insane. Seriously my Gran’s house is the place that time forgot. It has never changed, with one mild exception – that being that the beds in the spare rooms have been swapped around and my gran has a new chair. That’s it; just 2 changes in my lifetime. Everything else from the carpet on the floors to the leather suite in the living room is exactly as it has been for 21 years. Even my granddads desk is in the exact same spot that it has lived for years.

And then there are the photos – they have changed, or being moved around so that the new ones are allowed to shine. But, despite that, still the memories of old take pride of place around the house. I’m staying in what was my uncle’s room when he lived here; and here just like at home there is the photo of my granddads old chemist shop, which he ran in the town centre for so many years. And then there are the school photos – not just of me and my brothers which take pride of place downstairs in the front room but also of my dad and his brother which are jotted around this house as if they were keeping one last gaze on their childhood home. There is even a photo of all of the males of the family, which unfortunately was taken after my granddad had died, but there we are, appropriately in front a shop called Morgan. There we are; all of us together.

The Brecon diaries are my experiences and thoughts whilst I’m here for 6 weeks. Unfortunately I have no full time internet access here, so instead of the standing blogging, where I would post these on the actual days I wrote them, I present you with a diary, dates and all which I will upload and update as often as I can.

Saturday 19th July, 2008.

I feel like I should have been nervous. Not just of the job I start on Monday but also living with my Gran. Don’t get me wrong I love my family to bits, but within everyone there are the little faults of humanity that people just don’t like; the parts of a person that rub you up the wrong way or just tend to annoy you. Well my family like I’m guessing all others have there’s. My Gran is 88, and has lived alone now for many years, and life is beginning to take its toll and as such her memory isn’t what it used to be. So that means many conversations that follow the same track, day after day after day.

But on the way here this did not worry me, nor did it even cross my mind. The eight hours it took for me to travel from Barnsley to Brecon, went by relatively quickly, although this is most likely thanks to my I-pod which meant I had plenty to listen to without the fear of the battery running out after just half way through the journey.

So why have I travelled 8 hours on the national express? Well the simple truth is I start a 6 week internship on Monday here in the town with the local Liberal Democrats. Specifically I’ll be working for Kirsty Williams, the Welsh Assembly Member for Brecon and Radnorshire. I got the job by chance, or at least that’s what I think. For anyone who wants to work in politics, be it for an MP, AM or MSP, or a party at large or even a political organisation (like for instance the Electoral Reform Society) then there is a fantastic website for job listings – www.w4mp.org .

By chance I looked on there 10 days ago and saw the listing for many jobs across the country with the party; all of them being internships and all of them being no-where-near where I lived which was no help to me. The last posting on the lib dem search was for this internship, in Brecon, and fortunately for me I have family in the area. So once I’d told my parents about the position I sent off my application thinking that chances are someone from the local area would get the job, but maybe just maybe I would at least get an interview.

My application went in on the Wednesday, the next day I got my university results; a 2:1. On Tuesday I had my interview and by the afternoon I had been offered the job. Maybe it was the speed that this all took place, is that is why I am yet to feel nervous about having a job in the field I wish to work in, in the future. Whether it was from being offered the job on Tuesday to arriving here today I have not really thought about any of it, I’ve had other things on my mind and because of other things I needed to take care of before I left Barnsley the actual reality has still yet to sink in.
But at least there is time for that to happen as tomorrow I look to explore the town I haven’t been in for the better part of a decade. Although my Dad and his brother were not born here, Brecon is almost the heart of my family. It is where my Dad and Uncle spent most of there young lives, and it was the place where my Granddad set up and ran his own chemist in the town centre, whilst my Grandmother ran a sweet shop, just down the road from the chemist. This is the Morgan family heritage, we will always be connected to Brecon and so in part it seems fitting that here is where I start my post university working life