BBC NEWS | VOTE 2003 | Meirionnydd Nant Conwy

DESCRIPTION: Meirionnydd Nant Conwy

This should be a safe Plaid Cymru seat at both the assembly and Westminster. In 1999 its former MP Lord (Dafydd) Elis Thomas became the AM and he has been the assembly�s presiding officer ever since. The area is often regarded as the spiritual home of both Welsh nationalism and nonconformity. Owain Glyndwr�s main court during his uprising was at Harlech on the western coast and its fall signalled the revolt�s failure. It is a large constituency with one of the smallest electorates in England and Wales. Plaid Cymru has successfully argued that the social and linguistic nature of the constituency make it a special case to be left unchanged in a series of boundary reviews. The small market town of Bala has housed theological colleges, three Welsh language weekly newspapers and the residential centres of both Urdd Gobaith Cymru and the Evangelical Movement of Wales. Within a few miles lies the reservoir of Tryweryn. The flooding of the valley by the Liverpool Corporation in the early 1960s is credited with turning Plaid Cymru into a mainstream political force, and the creation of the more militant Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg.

The south of the constituency has few industries other than farming, tourism, and the depleted workforce employed to de-commission the nuclear power station at Trawsfynydd. The north of Merionnydd is a former slate quarrying district. The town of Blaenau Ffestiniog and its surrounding villages offer dramatic landscapes, but they are some of the poorest communities of Wales.

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