Aneurin Bevan Nye!

There are two towns in Wales, one a town and one a city where residents will put 'nye' on the end of a sentence as a confirmation.  For example a person from Denbigh or Bangor in North Wales might say 'Aneurin Bevan was the founder of the National Health Service nye'. Nye instead of isn't it! My first job out of school was on Thatcher's Youth Opportunities Programme where I earned a whopping £25.00 a week for being an immature prick in one of Wales oldest Printing and Publishing Houses, Gwasg Gee in Lon Swan, Denbigh, North Wales. I would be sent up, as the teaboy to the bakers at the top of town to order, "two hot pasties and a pork pie, anye". The rising inflection in the voice adding a piquance to the request.
This was 1983, the Falklands was over and a Recession was in Full swing! I remember going to Rhyl. I was 17 and had just passed my driving test. Rhyl was so depressing that on my return journey to the Vale of Clwyd, I pulled over in a lay-by before Rhuallt Hill in St Asaph and started sobbing! Now I don't know whether it was purely the fact that what I had seen on the streets of Rhyl that day had been so upsetting but I do know that I equate my life-long depression with Conservatism. My Bi-Polar Disorder which would be finally diagnosed at the grand old age of 39, started at the age of 13 in 1979, the same year that Margaret Thatcher came to power. Coincidence, I think not! Rhyl, situated on the Costa Del Crime. The Gold Coast pre A55 bringing the flotsam and jetssam from Manchester and Liverpool. The Gangsters and Drug Dealers and their addicts. I think what really triggered me was seeing a fat, bald, man in a leather jacket, with Tattoos with what would now be described as a Karaoke Machine. An Amplifier and Microphone singing songs of the Second World War. So White Cliffs of Dover and We'll Meet Again in 1983. Bizarre! So I was Four years in to my Mood Swings and with no insight at all! This was what being a teenager was all about! Every kid was like this! To this day, I am triggered by visual stimulus. If I see something that I vaguely interpret as depressing, sad or oppressive, I have to close my eyes and move on very quickly. That is why you won't see me on any high street at Christmas Time. Retail Hell would send me running up to Whitchurch Hospital or the Denbigh Mental asking to be put in a white coat!
So the riots of the early eighties and the hungers strikes and the Falklands and then the Miners Strike of 1984/85. It was a cheerful little time to be a Teenager! I wasn't fully politicised then. The environment was one that fermented a deep seated mistrust and hatred of the ruling elite. The Government were your school and your parents rolled into one! They needed to be challenged nye!