The Way, a bit near home for comfort.

[The Johnster]

Just finished watching Michael Sheen's The Way, and feel the need to comment.  Firstly, let me set out my stall; I'm Welsh by birth and culture, 50% by DNA, and small s socialist/small wn Welsh Nationalist by political inclination.  So no prizes for guessing where my sympathies lie, and since Sheen's are clearly compatible with this outlook, that I'll be in agreement with the points he makes in the programme.  Mostly.

 

My view is that Sheen was quite brave to write and direct this saga, and that the Beeb were equally brave in transmitting it against the background of the current situation in Port Talbot.  I am sure there are those who will be offended by it's political stand (good!) and those who will be concerned that the timing of the release is inflammatory and could result in attempts at copycatting the Red Monk Uprising; there is a lot of anger in Port Talbot in particular and South Wales in general rooted in years of what is seen as betrayal and abandonment by the profit-takers who have exploited our mineral wealth and tradtional skills for centuries.  Only fair then to mention that not all of these class enemies were dwyil Saes; in fact the original Taibach Ironworks and the Steel Company of Wales Steelworks that grew out of it were owned by the occupiers of Margam Castle, the proper Welsh Mansels.  There is no 'Welsh good English bad' story here in reality.

 

Could it actually happen?  Protest and violent clashes with police in Port Talbot rapidly expanding into a full-scale uprising that attracts all sorts of ancilliary protest groups with their own agendas and tubs to thump on it's back, the out-of-control authorities sending in the troops and closing the border?  Well, it's not impossible; as I said there is a lot of rage, and as Sid Vicious said, anger is an energy, self-sustaining and expanding when a critical mass is reached, and as Sheen points out, in the age of the internet it could happen very fast, even overnight.  If it did, Sheen is spot-on right about how the authorities would react; a state of emergency, heavy handed military clampdown, and manipulation of online imagery and press releases to achieve their aims; they probably have exactly this sort of thing contingency planned.  Establish a cordon, lock everything down within it, take out the leaders and anyone else it is suddenly possible to get rid of without censure, and restore 'calm', even if it's the silence of smouldering ruins and bodies in the streets.

 

Would it actually happen?  I think probably not, at least not like Sheen's overnight descent into anarchy.  Special Branch probably have enough surveillance on lobby and activist groups of the sort that descend on Port Talbot in the story to be able to keep them out.  There is plenty of army capability a short distance away that could be there in about 2 hours; Brecon, Crickhowell, Sennybridge, and tanks at Castlemartin.  These are training establishments, but would be capable of action if needed, andj the SAS is only another hour away in Hereford and could arrive a lot sooner than that by airdrop. 

 

I doubt that the government has the ability to close the Welsh border unless it was a very well prepared and planned operation, certainly not in this sort of timeframe.  It could be done, Offa's Dyke could be manned and patrolled, but not overnight and probably not completely in less than a week.  The Irish, much of whose trade comes by sea from Fishguard, Pembroke Dock, and Holyhead, would be up in arms in an instant, though I suppose the road corridors could be kept open for them.

 

Sheen very cleverly interweaves deep-rooted myths and legends into his tale; the sword invokes Excalibur and Arthur, the burnoff flame being extinguished is a very significant set-piece, and represents the final destruction of any faith locally in management press-release diplomacy.  The explanation, an emergency shut-down procedure accidentally triggered, is plausible but the timing is too coincidental for anyone to believe it is anything but deliberate; with the power cut at the works it is genuinely scary.

 

The reality on the ground is that the locals, both of and not of the workforce, feel that they have been lied to before, misrepresented, and sidelined, with the works owners citing the unpredictability of world trade as the reason.  Nobody believes them, and haven't for years.  The bitter truth is that the world has as much steel as it will need for some time in the form of steel products that will eventually be recycled into new steel by electric arc furnaces, and that the demand for smelted steel is merely what is needed to top the supply up replacing what is lost to oxidisation; in that sense, the Port Talbot steelworkers are yesterday's men, but that's not a view I'd be keen to express in the pubs down there this evening...  Tata say they intend to close the remaining smelting capacity and replace it with an electric arc facility for the re-use of scrap steel, but nobody believes them, the trust, whatever there ever was of it, is gone.  The cause of the strike and protest in the story is a tragic accident and consequent suicide; a young lad falls into a slag ladle and his father, who witnesses the accident, pours petrol over himself and lights up, salt in raw and emotional wounds.

 

Sheen thus neatly sidesteps the real world market and economic issues facing the management, but is bang on the nail when he describes the lack of trust and faith in them.  The anger, the sense of betrayal, the disenfranchisement, the pervading sense of lack of parity with the English in dealings with international businesses and the British Government (of either stamp), the conspiracy theories that turn out sometimes to be conspiracy practice, the unresolved issues of the 80s miners' struggle, the callous and unsympathetic handling of the Aberfan aftermath, the Treweryn Dam, Ford factory closures in Danygraig and Bridgend, even the murder of Llewellyn ap Gruffudd (and certainly the judicial murder of Dic Penderyn), it's all in the poisonous mix of folk memory, nobody's ever apologised in any meaningful way*, and nothing is ever, ever, done about it.  Let's pass a clean air act so the London smog doesn't recur, and build a polluting and killer smokeless fuel plant in the Welsh Valleys where nobody'll complain about it, and take no notice of them if they do, they're only Welsh anyway (google Abercwmboi Phunacite).

 

The usual argument against this is that anyone with a bit of nous about them will move out to wherever the work is.  There's 5 million of us, do you have enough employment in the South East of England to cope with that!  Thought not.  There are livings to be made here, even in Port Talbot, good ones, but nowhere near enough of them to go around, and the general consensus locally is that it is the job of government and the duty of capitalists whose predecessors grew rich on our backs to ensure that there are.  Never gonna happen, is it?

 

The second and third episodes are a different part of the story, the family coping with suddenly becoming homeless itinerant refugees with prices on their heads after what starts out as an attempt to reach Afan Country Park escalates out of control to fleeing the country, even to the extent of an English Channel crossing in an open inflatable to show that they are now no more than the illegal migrants coming the other way.  They have nothing except their lives and themselves left.  It's the family road trip from hell, and without spoiling too much, they don't all make it.  They have to contend with English xenophobia on the way, which I'm sure would exist should this sort of showdown ever kick off, but not to the extent that Sheen suggests.  To be fair, there are English that help them, but the influence of doctored deepfake imagery is prominent, and I think that this would in that reality be a major factor. 

 

 

There is a lot for conspiracy theorists to mull over in the government response to the uprising and the collaboration of image-makers and media in it.  Sheen has probably taken his cue here from history; the response of authority to rebellion is usually along these lines, and the first victim, even before the traditional bayonet charge into the crowd, is truth.  The victors always morph into the government, and the process repeats; nobody learns anything and new causes to die for are built from the ashes of the old tyrannies.

 

This is as good as the best tv I have ever seen, and the best this century.  It asks questions and raises points that should be asked and raised, and too often aren't, and reminds us how thin the wall is; you are two meals away from revolution, brother!

 

*Liverpool Council did, eventually, apologise for the flooding of Treweryn, but not until some decades later, and confessed that it was a propety speculation scheme that had made millions for it's participants, the selling off of water storage on prime development land in and around Liverpool and replacing it with water piped from Treweyrn at the cost of a village and several farms, purely as a profit deal and with no compensation to those forced out of their homes by compulsory purchase.  No compensation beyond the desultory pricing of the compulsory purchase order was ever afforded to the villagers, and one has to comment that the case would likely have been different had they been English Peak or Lake District villagers.  This happened in the 1960s and was a wonderful recruitment campaign for the more extreme elements in Welsh Nationalism and Welsh Language activism, including bombers...

 

Y Mynach Goch Am Byth.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 22 by The Johnster

[Inoffapost]

It is a great thing that TV and film, like books are still being made and written that provoke thought and reaction. That gives me some hope because I have serious doubts about even the future of these mediums. I haven't seen the programme you are commenting on (yet). Your synopsis does sound quite compelling. Sheen is a fine actor, writer, director and producer so I imagine he knew exactly how to deliver the role with absolute conviction. The location and source material for the story would have been manna from heaven for him.

 

I'm English, with Irish roots now living in Germany and although I keep abreast of 'stuff' happening 'back home', with todays media it's hard to really sort out wheat from the chaff, and when it comes to the truth, well trying to get to that..........I could find Nemo quicker!

 

That notwithstanding I did spend 14 years working in the rail industry from 1988 to 2002. During those years I spent many many hours through my job in the LLanwern, Port Talbot, and Ebbw Vale Works. It was still British Steel then (or was it really?). The tie ups and 'tie ins' had already started with Arcelor, and Hoogevens, so the rationalisation was already underway in the mid 90's. Way back then, everyone I dealt with at those plants knew that the slow death of the steel making business in the UK had long since begun and that the industry was doomed. Senior and junior managers and plant staff that I knew ALL knew that anyone starting at the plants back then would lose their job at some point, probably sooner rather than later. The older ones were just pleased to get out with a pension (wonder if that is still going?). I'm amazed that in 2024 Port Talbot is still there because the writing on the wall(s) has been there for 2 decades or more. That TATA took it all on in the UK, and across the whole of Europe as well was and still is mind boggling. The financial chicanery that must have been involved to get them to do it must have been monumental.

 

So it is difficult to accept that the current generation of workers there have been lied to. Oh, they may have swallowed the hope of the dream, and the party line, but any of the former generation of workers and family members in South Wales could have and would told them that there was no future. The trust that you mention was gone 30 years ago. I can't honestly believe that anyone actually thought TATA could be 'trusted' or were going to be a saviour of the industry. Surely, all it meant was that the job or a job was still there....for now.

 

Globalisation, that 'catch all' for all our current ills is to blame, of course, energy and production costs and then all the other reasons. Fact is, it is cheaper to rape other parts of the developing world and exploit other peoples than accept the moral responsibility to look after our own. If there is one thing the human race does better than any other it is to screw over it brothers and sisters, wherever they may be.

 

It doesn't change the scenario though, we are where we are. But with a bit of hindsight has the 'bandaiding' of the industry actually helped? 30 or more years have been lost when planning and developing the exit strategy might have been time well spent although I guess we should ask the folks in Ravenscraig and Corby how that all went.

 

As far as jobs in the south east go, as far as I know there is a lot of them, but maybe not 5 million. But there's nowhere to live, and even if there was, the job you could get, even a fair paying one, wouldn't cover the cost of living there. So the grass isn't greener or even affordable, anywhere in the UK, as far as I can see. And just to depress you further it doesn't get any better here! Germany has turned into the sick man of Europe. Yes that old moniker. Farmers blocking the roads and towns, trains on strikes for a week at a time. Planes and airports on strike this week (again). The most unpopular government since, well ever, I think......and it is a socialist/green coalition! Conspiracy theories abound all over as huge chunks of the populace move to the right in their thinking...well, 2.5 million refugees will do that to you won't it?

 

So maybe that is where Sheen's film goes completely out of whack. I can't see anyone fleeing to mainland Europe now or in the near future because it really won't be any better, or have any point. Well, not unless it is a 28 days later situation. Maybe that is what we need, a pandemic or a war, to reduce the unemployed and mouths to be fed. Oh, hang on, we've got the latter on our doorstep already and the with the former we had a 'dry run' a couple of years ago. There is the rub in all this. I don't know about the UK, but during Covid the German government passed new laws that drove a horse and cart through the German constitution. New laws regarding emergency powers against public gatherings, the media and so on. If, a situation like Sheen's started to occur here the government here have some fairly swingeing powers to stamp it out - sharpish. Lets call it the 'Chinese Solution'. Those laws were never revoked after the covid 'crisis'. There's long term planning for you!

 

For all the drama of the film, your synopsis paints a fairly hopeless picture, which I'm sad to say is pretty accurate. Humanity just now seems to be picking at the edges. Stumbling by, fumbling along. The old systems just don't work anymore. We can't help all the people.There is no job for life (unless you are French or German civil servant, maybe a British one too), no right to a home, perhaps soon no right to even hope. I'm 66 and looking to eke out an acceptable existence for some years, but there is no guarantee of that. One day at a time then...sad but true.

[The Johnster]

13 hours ago, Inoffapost said:

 

So it is difficult to accept that the current generation of workers there have been lied to. Oh, they may have swallowed the hope of the dream, and the party line, but any of the former generation of workers and family members in South Wales could have and would told them that there was no future. The trust that you mention was gone 30 years ago. I can't honestly believe that anyone actually thought TATA could be 'trusted' or were going to be a saviour of the industry. Surely, all it meant was that the job or a job was still there....for now.

 

Very good point well made.  The thing is that the current generation of workers feel lied to, by TATA, the government, their parents (who were delighted when their offspring got jobs in the steelworks because they still sub-conciously think steelworks jobs are for life), the media, society in general; this is what Sheen brilliantly accurately taps into.  TATA, when they took on Port Talbot works, were held to be saviours of the town and to have shown confidence in it's future, so were welcomed.  To be fair to TATA, while that image is holed below the waterline and the symbolism of the functioning blast furnace will disappear, the two-mile-long strip mill will remain and the firm will still be the major employer in the area.  The future of steelmaking, though not smelting, and the ancilliary industries is assured, for now....

 

As you say, one day at a time.  Port Talbot, indeed South Wales as a whole, has suffered blow upon blow; yesterday's men (as have other regions but there is a palpable perception of Welsh victimology in this and that other damaged regions are coping better and are attracting more investment), and there is undoubtedly more and worse to come.  Cardiff, my own city, became the site of the Welsh Assembly Government, which, proud Cardiffian though I am, I think was a mistake because it is widely and not entirely incorrectly seen across the rest of Wales as representing Cardiff at the expense of the rest of Wales. 

 

I voted for a Senedd in Machynlleth for the same reasons that Owain Glyndwr sited his parliament there; it is central, the traditional border between north and south, and he could ride his horse anywhere in Wales in 48 hours from it; translate that to a 3 hour drive.  But the meeja, especially the Welsh-speaking elite Crachach, have settled in Cardiff and the Assembly was never realistically going to be anywhere else; this self-serving and highly corrupt cabal are big fish in our small pond and wield huge unmandated and unaccoutable power and influence.  The country is effectively run by and for them, in back rooms and out of public knowledge.  This is a major component of the disrepresentation felt outside the city; not listened to in Westminster and even less listenend to in Cardiff Bay.  

 

My view is that global capitalism is failing and will implode, South Wales is one of the places at the sharp end, Marxist socialism is a busted flush because you can't do the loaves and fishes thing unless you're Jesus and even he limited it to 5,000 customers, and that the concept of working for a living is dated and doomed when the majority of us are non-voting unemployed underclass who have been cleverly trained to apathy and doing what they are told, bread and circuses with the internet and widescreen tvs.  The world is going to have to come up with something else as a way of feeding and housing its human beings, the profit motive doesn't cut it any more.  Maybe global warming and rising sea levels are ultimately good things, as the loss of coastal cities and moving north of arable land will allow a new appoach, less based on paying people to produce goods and services.  What the new thing will be I have no idea, but it will need to not only create wealth but fairly and equably (equably does not mean equally) distribute it, and provide things for people to do.  I agree the next century looks pretty bleak and if we descend into nuclear conflict it's goodnight Vienna (and everywhere else), but humanity is pretty adaptable and will probably come up with the goods.  But it's gonna need a paradigm shift in attitudes, everywhere, not just in the West.  And it isn't gonna happen in our lifetimes, bwtti bach!!!

[Mike 84C]

I wonder if Sheene will be able to re-write the series when the same thing happens at Scunthorpe?  And just to keep a railway related  thread going that's the plant that rolls railway track since the closure of Whitehaven.

[The Johnster]

I'm sure the situation would have significant similarities, Mike, but Sheen has intense personal experience of the Port Talbot area and is passionate about it and its people, an aspect that comes across quite strongly in 'The Way', which is clearly a personal view of the situation.  If he were dramatising similar events at Scunthorpe, he would not have this local knowledge to draw on as an inspiration, and the Welsh element of the story, including its thinly veiled references to ancient legend (Excalibur and so on), would be missing.  Perhaps Robin Hood could be commandeered in this role, or the Vikings?  But i think the writing and production would be better coming from someone more familiar with North Lincolnshire, ideally with a similar passion and sympathy for the area as Sheen's for Port Talbot and it's hinterland.