THE constituency of Newport West was created during the early years of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as prime minister.

At the 1983 General Election, with the Labour party tearing itself apart over policy and political direction, the seat's first MP was Mark Robinson, a Conservative.

He was made a junior Welsh Office minister, but failed to hold his majority of 581 at the 1987 election, which marked the beginning of Labour's gradual resurgence. The winner in 1987 was Labour's Paul Flynn, who has retained the seat ever since.

The constituency hosts some of the city's poorest and richest areas, and a significant ethnic minority community.

While it fares quite well against many of the traditional measures of well-being, there are issues to be addressed that have a United Kingdom-wide resonance. One is health and social care, illustrated by the fact of Newport West's growing burden of long-term limiting illness.

More than one in five of the constituency's almost 80,000 population suffer a long-term, limiting illness, compared with one in six in 1991.

In the 22 years since this seat was first contested, the social and economic fortunes of the constituency and the now city of Newport have changed dramatically. There has been a big decline in manufacturing industries, mirroring the situation over much of the United Kingdom, and most graphically represented here by the diminishing role of Llanwern steelworks as a major employer.

Steel and related job losses hit hard, though the setting up of Newport Unlimited, Wales' first urban regeneration company, is providing a focus for stimulating new investment and new jobs, and ideas for revamping the city centre and its environs.

The dream of 6,000 jobs being created at the giant LG electronics complex was sadly never realised, a sobering reminder that even the best intentions can go awry.

But Newport West hosts a strong employment base in the civil service sector, with the Patent and Statistics Offices at Tredegar Park, and the Prison Service set to relocate here.

The city has also seen the creation, by Gwent-born computer billionaire Sir Terry Matthews, of the Celtic Manor Leisure Resort, which will host the 2010 Ryder Cup.