Last Thursday, an old flatmate of mine stood for the Conservatives in a ward of the Rhondda Cynon Taff borough, in the local elections.
RCT is in south Wales. It is very Welsh, and covers an area of valleys, small towns and disused coal mines. Everyone votes Labour or Plaid. They have done so for as long as they can remember, and they don’t see any reason to change now. People aren’t ready to forgive the Tories for Thatcher quite yet.
My friend only found out he was standing a few weeks back. He had shown some interest in politics before but had done very little in terms of active participation. He had applied for some research jobs at the Welsh Conservatives, and someone suggested he stood in the elections. It would look good on a CV after all.
how strange it is 