It's salutary to compare our experience here in Penarth - or in the UK generally - with other countries. In that spirit, on Monday, Newsnight considered “austerity” in the UK immediately after looking at life on the streets of Afghanistan.
During the general election, I took an hour out of campaigning to join members of Cardiff’s Somali community at the Temple of Peace for the launch of the autobiography of Mohamud Barud Ali, who was a prisoner of conscience during the “Hidden War” of the late 1980s.
President Siad Barre was a tyrant to people in the northern province of Somalia (the former British Somaliland). The book – The Mourning Tree - is particularly powerful, because the author forced himself to use the written word. He believed it was vital for the history of those times to be set down for posterity.
Does it matter to us? Well, yes it does. This is the story of many of our Welsh Somalis and their families. In dark times they took comfort from the interest shown by people in Wales. We heard that message too from leaders in South Africa after Nelson Mandela walked free and they were able to renew their connections with the UK.
And we can learn from them. Some 18 years ago, with Somaliland in ruins and the south of Somalia in chaos, the people of Somaliland sat down in a Loya Jurga - a sort of political eisteddfod – to write a constitution. It's not perfect, but it has survived three presidential and parliamentary elections. And Somaliland will go to the polls again shortly to elect a new president.
Drawing up a full and accurate register of electors was challenging for a largely nomadic and very poor nation. What they have achieved is impressive. Sadly, after 900 years of democracy we face similar problems here. To our shame, there are some 3.5 million people in the UK not registered to vote. The theoretical “right to vote” is meaningless unless you're on the electoral register. Every local authority needs to make sure that the right to vote is truly universal for all citizens.