BBC NEWS | VOTE 2003 | Montgomeryshire

DESCRIPTION: Montgomeryshire

Few seats are more rural than Montgomeryshire. Census returns show that it has more of the working population employed in agriculture than any other part of Britain. For the most part fertile and rolling land, its people are largely English-speaking, although the Welsh language is more widespread towards the west. Its main towns are Welshpool, Newtown and Llanidloes along the Severn Valley in the east, and Machynlleth in the west. The old county of Montgomeryshire is now the northern part of Powys County Council. Machynlleth has a special place in Welsh history. At the height of Owain Glyndwr�s rebellion against English rule in 1404, he was crowned Prince of Wales and established a Welsh Parliament in the town.

Newtown used to be the headquarters of the Development Board for Rural Wales. Since that body was absorbed into the Welsh Development Agency the area has seen a range of industrial developments. But agriculture remains the lynchpin of the local economy, and farms in this seat were hit hard by foot-and-mouth. Although the area has seen considerable inward investment over the past 30 years, the recent announcement of 250 job losses at the KTH automotive plant in Llanidloes is a blow. The constituency has been a Liberal parliamentary stronghold for a century, broken only by a Conservative victory in 1979. Its MP is Welsh Lib Dem leader Lembit Opik; it also elected a Lib Dem at the first assembly election.

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