Ogmore
Labour hold

Ogmore-by-Sea is small resort on the soft Glamorgan coast near Porthcawl. However Ogmore constituency is in fact a mining valley seat, named after Ogmore Vale and Ogmore Forest between Maesteg and Pontypridd. The seat does not any longer reach the Bristol Channel, at Ogmore-by-Sea or anywhere else. It is just a valley seat now, including the Garw as well as the Ogmore valleys. In the Assembly elections of May 1999 Plaid Cymru cut the Labour lead from over 64pc to 21pc, technically a swing of over 22pc, but they were still well behind, and in a seat where over 90pc of the population can speak English but not Welsh, Labour are effectively certain winners.

Sir Ray Powell, Labour's sole knight of the slagheaps, is a Whip fallen from grace under Blair. An old-style, vintage South Welsh machine politician, whose daughter, Janice Gregory, slipped into the seat as its Welsh Assembly representative in 1999, he was born in 1928 and educated at Pentre Grammar School in the Rhondda, and worked variously as a railway fireman, shop manager, water board officer and party agent to the seat's previous MP, before election here in 1979. Off-message since eviction from the Whips' office with a consoling knighthood in 1995, he resisted efforts to prise him out of his seat, opposed Welsh devolution, voted against student grant abolition, and lost no opportunity to vote against homosexual sex at 16.

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   Thriving Wealthy Achievers, Suburban Areas 2.54% 14.99% 16.96 Affluent Greys, Rural Communities 0.00% 2.13% 0.00 Prosperous Pensioners, Retirement Areas 0.00% 2.49% 0.00 Expanding Affluent Executives, Family Areas 2.12% 4.43% 47.96 Well-Off Workers, Family Areas 11.01% 7.27% 151.36 Rising Affluent Urbanites, Town & City Areas 0.00% 2.56% 0.00 Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Areas 0.00% 2.04% 0.00 Better-Off Executives, Inner City Areas 0.00% 3.94% 0.00 Settling Comfortable Middle Agers, Mature Home Owning Areas 4.36% 13.04% 33.42 Skilled Workers, Home Owning Areas 45.56% 12.70% 358.67 Aspiring New Home Owners, Mature Communities 13.14% 8.14% 161.39 White Collar Workers, Better-Off Multi Ethnic Areas 0.00% 4.02% 0.00 Striving Older People, Less Prosperous Areas 1.28% 3.19% 40.28 Council Estate Residents, Better-Off Homes 14.99% 11.31% 132.52 Council Estate Residents, High Unemployment 0.16% 3.06% 5.27 Council Estate Residents, Greatest Hardship 4.83% 2.52% 191.81 People in Multi-Ethnic, Low-Income Areas 0.00% 2.10% 0.00 Unclassified Unclassified 0.00% 0.06% 0.00

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   £0-5K 10.49% 9.41% 111.41 £5-10K 20.47% 16.63% 123.07 £10-15K 19.81% 16.58% 119.48 £15-20K 15.09% 13.58% 111.12 £20-25K 10.55% 10.39% 101.54 £25-30K 7.16% 7.77% 92.16 £30-35K 4.84% 5.79% 83.57 £35-40K 3.29% 4.33% 75.93 £40-45K 2.26% 3.27% 69.24 £45-50K 1.57% 2.48% 63.42 £50-55K 1.11% 1.90% 58.38 £55-60K 0.80% 1.47% 54.00 £60-65K 0.58% 1.15% 50.18 £65-70K 0.42% 0.91% 46.84 £70-75K 0.32% 0.72% 43.91 £75-80K 0.24% 0.57% 41.32 £80-85K 0.18% 0.46% 39.02 £85-90K 0.14% 0.37% 36.98 £90-95K 0.11% 0.31% 35.14 £95-100K 0.08% 0.25% 33.50 £100K + 0.35% 1.34% 26.36