In the current state of UK politics, the currency most lacking is that of hope.

In the recent Westminster election, the Labour party's slogan was "change", not more of the same, and so it has been dismaying to see hope diminish by the day that their party in government will offer any significant realignment of politics. They (rightly) find blame with the Conservatives' legacy, but bind themselves blindly to their economic ideology. Austerity has been a wretched wrong inflicted on our population: I'd have hoped that a supposedly socialist government would do more to distance themselves from its cruelty.

Yet instead, we are being "treated" to Tory-lite policies: cutting pensioners’ winter fuel payments and keeping the two-child benefit cap. Some of the most desperate people in our society are the ones who fall between the gaps of policies: the ones who only just miss out on meeting arbitrary eligibility criteria for state support. Again, a supposedly socialist government should know better. It should DO better.

And that government's determination to starve public spending sees effects on local authorities, too. The impact of these continuing constraints can be seen in Monmouthshire Council’s decisions to close the Tudor Centre in Abergavenny and Caerphilly Council’s threat to remove funding from two historic institutions in the area.

Llancaiach Fawr Manor House and Blackwood Miners Institute are cherished institutions, and I am deeply concerned that if they close now, they won’t reopen. Sites like these are cornerstones for the community: they simply must be saved.

Because hope can come from many corners, and public spending is meant to fuel public goods. We were promised change, and not more of the same. I wait with baited breath for some glimmer of hope to at last emerge, and for the UK government to change its course. Without more radicalism, I fear Westminster will remain stuck in a cruel shadow of the past.