I’d like to thank Aditya Chakrabortty for his article on the plight of Simon in the Rhymney Valley (Opinion, 6 December). I live in Caerphilly, at the lower end of the valley, closer to Cardiff, but many of the problems here are similar to those farther up: mines and factories closed, men laid off in their thousands, replaced by minimum-wage call-centre jobs in Cardiff or Newport, both cities suffering from a destruction of their industrial base.
I was luckier than Simon. About 20 years younger, when I graduated there were enough mechanical engineering jobs locally to pick and choose. But then factories started closing, followed by the vicious destruction of the coal industry and loss of jobs. I found a job in an offshore oil consultancy in Cardiff but after a few years they relocated to London. So after trying the jobseeker’s allowance route, and getting nowhere, I joined the ranks of contract engineers, now probably called the gig economy. I had a series of jobs, up to six months each, travelling daily to Bristol, Swindon, Gloucestershire, out of the house 12 hours a day. After a few years I collapsed with exhaustion, only to be told I had to wait for any jobseeker’s allowance because I’d left my job voluntarily. When eligible, and able to sign on, I had to apply for 35 jobs a week. I was an experienced mechanical design engineer, yet told to apply for warehouse jobs etc. Luckily, after a few months, an ex-employer phoned and asked if I was looking for work. But I never forgot the system that destroyed my area, and the horrors of being unemployed. And why didn’t I move to the work? House prices.
John Owen
Caerphilly
• I read Aditya’s piece and wept. Time after time, he brings injustice, government ineptitude and lack of compassion to our attention, and yet nothing changes. I’m so angry I could burst. I just don’t know what to do with my outrage.
Jenny Mitton
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
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