Had they been in power for the past 30 years, the Transporter Bridge would be scrap metal, Tredegar House rubble, and Victoria Place lined with ugly flats.
But wait, Newport which has been under the control of Labour scum for over 30 years, give or take a few years, so they must have looked after our heritage. Right?
So lets have a look at one part of our heritage as a city, the Westgate Hotel scene of the Newport_Rising.
When on November 4th 1839. somewhere between 1000/5000 Chartist sympathisers, led by John Frost marched on Newport intending to liberate fellow Chartists who they believed had been taken prisoner and were held in the Westgate Hotel.
So there it is, as photographed by myself a few weeks back. Closed up after spending a short time as a nite-club. Left to rot by the New Labour councillors who Paul Flynn praises to the skies.
Covered in scribble and fliers dating back quite some time. New Labour caring for our heritage no doubt...
What a good job they have done preserving this part of our history. 
Who would have thought that this classic part of our history would have been left to rot by socialist brothers and sisters? A casual visitor to Newport would not even know its history looking at it, just another failed nite-club up for sale...The Chartists were convinced that some of their fellows had been imprisoned at the Westgate Hotel. Filing quickly down the steep Stow Hill, the Chartists arrived at the small square in front of the hotel at about 9.30 a.m. The flash point came when the crowd demanded the release of the imprisoned Chartists. A brief, violent and bloody battle ensued. Shots were fired by both sides, contemporary accounts indicating that the Chartists attacked first. But the soldiers holding the building, despite being greatly outnumbered by the large and very angry crowd, had vastly superior fire-power, training and discipline, all of which soon broke the crowd. The Chartists did manage to enter the building temporarily, but were forced to retreat in disarray. After a fiercely fought battle lasting approximately half an hour, from 10 to 24 of their number (a fair estimate is 22) having been killed by the troops, and upwards of 50 wounded.
How strange that Paul Flynn is so silent on the poor state of this local building, how strange his council were happy to see it sold off to developers and forgotten about as the scene of a famous battle.
Then again as we have a liar as an MP, a council that up until a few months ago were more concerned with free lunches at my expense than helping the people, it comes as no real surprise...
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2 people have spoken:
This article is so right.
Since the Chartist Uprising (the last major armed upruising on British soil if you you don't count the Troubles) did so much to secure certain parliamentary reforms and banish outdated imperialist nonsense in the Commons, this could be seen as the birthplace of modern bicameral democracy, and certainly the high point of the Chartist movement.
And what do our beloved council do with it? Let it become a Starbucks, a phone shop and a "niteclub". And then leave it to ruin. In time they'll have neglected it sufficiently to be able to call it unsafe and pull it down altogether and build a car park. When John Frost Square is renamed Claire Short Plaza and Tredegar House becomes Masjid Jamia the whole rot will have been complete.
Is it any wonder Newportonians are so fucking miserable when their civic pride is being washed away in this manner? Only fucking Wetherspoons of all places serves to remind us of out local notables- what a shame on us all.
Unless a visitor to Newport passes the mural - which is coming down soon - there is nothing, not a thing to let them know about the Chartists and that part of South Wales/Newport history.
I just hate Flynn with his "oh look how fucking marvellous we are" shit.
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