Hemsworth

Hemsworth is a small town on the edge of West Yorkshire in the Wakefield district. It is famous for being the place where Labour votes were "weighed, not counted" during the 1960s and 1970s. It was a one-industry town, where coal mining employed the vast majority of residents, and the closure of the pits under Conservative governments led to huge levels of unemployment and deprivation in the area. Hemsworth, along with nearby villages such as South Kirkby, South Elmsall and Fitzwilliam, was made into a special regeneration area. Fortunes have improved as a result. The town is not even so heavily Labour-voting as it once was. The town's M.P. is John Trickett - an openly gay politician and a former leader of Leeds council. B.B.C. Newsnight's constitunecy profile decribed Hemsworth as "a deprived and depressed area".