OP
OP
briantrumpet
Pharaoh
I must admit I did think of you while I was there... but don't let it go to your head 😜
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I must admit I did think of you while I was there... but don't let it go to your head 😜
Rusty Nails
Country Member
Cue the jokes from Cardiff:
What's the best thing to come out of Newport?.....the A48
The Germans bombed Newport in the war...and caused a million pounds worth of improvement.
P.S. I used to enjoy Newport in the 1970s...it had some good clubs in the town centre.
OP
OP
briantrumpet
Pharaoh
Of course, what I meant to say is that Newport is really lovely, and it all looks like this.
First Aspect
Guru
The UK Intellectual Property Office is in Newport. It's one of the reasons there are a few patent attorneys based in Bristol.
Pross
Ãœber Member
Wife works a couple of doors up the hill from that shot. That’s the front of the former Westgate Hotel where the Chartist uprising was brutally put down.
My mother-in-law is always banging on about how great it was in its heyday and if you look above the rundown store fronts you can see remnants of its former prosperity in the architecture. Cwmbrân getting built as a new town helped kill it off along with towns further up the valley (Pontypool in particular).
Beebo
Guru
I used to spend time there in the 80s/90s.
I was always amazed at how may adults smoked. It was almost a universal pastime.
OP
OP
briantrumpet
Pharaoh
Yes, noticed the neglected grand facades... always a bit sad when you can see what was once a prosperous place... Bexhill-on-Sea was even more extreme, IIRC, the one time I went there.
Rusty Nails
Country Member
I did some work for the IPO and the Office for National Statistics, who share the same premises in Newport, some years back. Both have moved a lot of jobs from London and the south coast to Newport and both have had a lot of difficulty getting staff to move to Newport. Many have chosen to live in places like Bristol, the more rural areas in commuting distance to Newport, and Cardiff.
The site it is on is in a terrible position near the frequent traffic jams due to problems with the M4 tunnels at Newport.
First Aspect
Guru
The phone lines are now all in English and Welsh.
There is a suggestion that the quality has gone down hill since the Newport move. I don't think that's necessarily the case, and it is probably more to do with the shoot salaries.
Rusty Nails
Country Member
Only the initial introduction I believe. It is policy for government departments in Wales.
My son works at the IPO and he confirms the shoot salaries, especially since austerity hit pay rises some years back, although he is not on the patent/copyright technical side.
OP
OP
briantrumpet
Pharaoh
A pity I can't tag Cake Stop's RJSterry...
First Aspect
Guru
I think a slow degradation of salaries and forced wearing of black roll neck sweaters in the office are punishments.
First Aspect
Guru
Is it worth asking what the jist of the article is? Or is that a descent into madness?
OP
OP
briantrumpet
Pharaoh
I assume it's this one, which has been published in the Spectator too.
https://www.newsbeep.com/nz/288104/