A day to go and I still don't know.
Is there any point in voting in Merthyr, where Labour will stroll in as ever?
Our MP retired : Dai Havard the 'Member for Baghdad', spent more time in Afghanistan than here ; often seen on telly in a flak jacket ; now the troops have been withdrawn he's lost his purpose!
I received a leaflet from his heir Gerald Jones in English only and emailed him in Welsh asking why and also his views on 'glo brig' (opencast). He eventually replied saying that his party always tries to support the Welsh language and the Assembly was responsible for opencast decisions.
Not true apparently and he sounds like a Ted Rowlands type, with a foot in both camps : Rowlands was against opencast on western slopes, but in favour on the eastern side of the valley!
You'd hardly know there was an election happening in Merthyr, home of the great Rising.
All the usual suspects have posters and placards in their houses and a local Labourite regularly buys the 'Daily Mail'!
UKIP posters adorn the fences which surround Trago Mills' decade-long wasteland, surely a symbol of their rubble of policies from outright denial of global warming to 'respectable' racism .
But if Labour will sleep-walk in, then UKIP will come second ,I fear.
There are enough people around who point the finger at immigrants from Europe rather than the real culprits : the banks, the Government and Labour at Assembly and Council levels, who have failed miserably to create any alternatives.
So what will I choose?
In this presidential style election it's very much about the performance of leaders on the media. Yet, we are crying out for less leaders and more people taking power into their own hands.
Reformist parties will, as ever, make minimal changes to our unjust society.
I'd like to see a country based largely on nationalised industries and co-operatives, with Council housing once again being built, but this time designed by communities and with the freedom to improve.
I'd like to see schools become democracies not run by yes-men Heads, with our fanatical testing replaced forever by learning for sheer enjoyment and courses created together by teachers and pupils.
I'd like to see people trained in hi-tech and sustainable industries , so they wouldn't have to leave the remoter and abandoned parts of Cymru : every home made 'green' and smaller industries using local materials and the talent available.
I'd like to see the Arts at the very core of our country, not increasingly pushed to the periphery by cuts and forced to scrape around for private sponsorship.
Some of these ideas are touched upon by the reformist parties, I realise.
The Greens actually talk about co-operation in education and getting rid of the stultifying examination culture.
The Commies and TUSC are strong on the need to nationalise , bringing energy, water and transport companies into public ownership to ensure decent prices and services.
Plaid Cymru are obviously the party which come closest to my own vision of a Welsh, socialist republic, though they are aiming for the spurious half-way house of Home Rule.
These are all parties who claim to be anti-austerity, though we shall see if they get any power, what they deliver.
Without a PR system which can make an impact, I do feel the futility of this election.
I recently travelled to Ceredigion and witnessed the sheer exhilaration of a genuine battle between Liberal Dems, Labour and Plaid Cymru.
By contrast, Merthyr seems as empty and broken down as the huge Hoover factory.
I wonder if we could state our preferences - from 1-5, or whatever - whether a lot more people would be involved?
I would feel a greater motivation to vote if I could choose between Plaid, Green and Communists ( though they do need to change their name!) for an order of preference.
There are plenty of people who appeared on the Channel 4 series 'Skint' about Merthyr who probably see voting as pointless.
Though, with their highly individualistic life-style, I doubt the solidarity needed for a revolution would appeal to them either.
I only watched the final programme and not because I was shown on it, haranguing Carlo with a megaphone poem.
The subtitles were unnecessary and downright patronising. There were also mistranslations like 'potch around' as 'potter around'.
However, it was more sympathetic than I'd expected, illustrating how poverty can drive lively and interesting characters to crime.
'Skint' is just one perspective on Merthyr. It was definitely more realistic than the 'Real Merthyr' relayed on walesonline website,a touristy vision of daffs and rock-climbing.
Yet I know those living on benefits who are highly intelligent and creative people, with immense talents which are wasted and views which do advocate a revolution.
To show them would've been just too complicated though, wouldn't it? These people are nowhere near the inevitable tendency towards stereotype.
You could do a series of three programmes about the amazing cultural resurgence in this town, from the artwork of Gus Payne to singer-songwriters Kizzy Crawford, Jamie Bevan and Delyth McLean, to bands like Pretty Vicious and the Moonbirds.....You could do, but it won't be done.
A positive message doesn't bring in the viewers and culture challenges with its own small revolution.
SOFA SURFIN
Ee've kicked me out
it woz a stewpid argument
'bout a juke-box
'Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep' -
I fuckin sayd 'No way! '
( shame no Beef'eart).
Ee've kicked me out
without even a key
t get all I owned,
a sleepin-bag ; my phone
woz dead as my life become.
Ee wuz the final one.
Ever tried it mun?
Ever tried balancin
on a fuckin sofa
when yewer ands shake
like it's always winter?
Ever tried ridin the waves
of forms an offices,
find an answer in impossible paper?
Ever tried goin under,
I mean drownin alive
below all yewer memrees?
Coz I'm talkin 'bout the breakers
ewger than any sea's -
divorce an booze, gettin sacked an speed.
Ow I stood on-a board
f moments before bein dragged down
t the subway, like an underwater tunnel
where I could ardly breathe.
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