Mark Andrews – A warm welcome to Aberystwyth, more scandal from the Post Office, and why it's wrong to blame poverty for a lack of interest in reading
Nothing like a bit of friendly hospitality, is there?
"Low life like you should be forced to live in fenced-in tinker sites, preferably back where you come from," says the latest promotional leaflet from the Welsh tourist board.
"Why don't you take your clapped-out, crappy boats, jeeps and cars, and your hideous, vomit-inducing accents back to Brummyland, and please take a few thousand other yaw yaws with you."
Ok, it wasn't actually a leaflet from the Welsh tourist board, it was actually a note pinned to the door of a house in Aberystwyth, in child-like handwriting and strewn with grammatical errors. But given the impact it will probably have on Aberystwyth's visitor economy, it might as well be.
It's been the best part of 20 years since I visited the coastal town, and if that is the sort of welcome that people from the Midlands can expect – I'm not a Brummie, but don't suppose the sort of knucklehead who writes a letter like that would be sophisticated enough to make the distinction – I doubt if I will be making the effort any time soon. Particularly if it means you have to drive at 20mph to get around there.
