Tory plans would see 11 Welsh MPs go

I RECENTLY met with a senior representative from Lloyds Bank to discuss the proposed bank closure in Mountain Ash.

We have since had further discussions and I have stressed to the bank that they must do more to help older and disabled residents get to grips with online and telephone banking, as well as the use of ‘mobile vans’ to reach out to constituents in more rural parts of the valley.

A fortnight ago I voted for a bill to halt the Tories’ blatant gerrymandering of constituency boundaries.

Wales would lose eleven MPs under the Tory plans. The Cynon Valley and Pontypridd would become one Parliamentary seat.

The existing review would also airbrush out nearly two million newly-registered voters.

It surely cannot be democratic to reduce the number of elected MPs while the Government continues to fill the House of Lords with unelected peers.

I have been increasingly concerned at the high price being paid by civilians in the Syrian Civil War. The negative impact felt by civilians has been magnified by Russia’s support of President Assad’s regime, as they target schools, hospitals and aid supplies to besieged parts of Syria.

Last week, I asked the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, what work the Government is doing to gather the evidence of war crimes, so that those responsible for these terrible atrocities will be brought to justice.

I was delighted to read in the Cynon Valley Leader recently that homes have now been found for a number of cats who had been abandoned.

With Christmas on the horizon, many people will be thinking of giving kittens as presents to their own family members.

But it is crucial that anyone planning to do so should think carefully: cats, dogs, like pets of all sorts, need care and attention from their owners.