It's clear that the large scale massacre of the not-so-innocents within NPT Labour is being kept under wraps, a bit like a jealously guarded family secret about a favourite uncle caught nicking women's underwear off washing lines. But little by little the news slips out. By 4 April we shall have to know the whole picture because all candidates for the 4 May elections have to be announced by then.
Sandfields is not an area I'm that interested in. Any community that could vote in someone called Kinnock has to have serious issues it ought to address and I'd normally say deserves everything that then comes its way in terms of the paucity of its democratic representation. But news has filtered through of one new candidate that may have nothing to do with the extraordinary cull that has taken place. Or maybe it has. Who knows, who cares even?
Sandfields East ward returns three councillors to NPT and in 2012 two out of the three were Labour, the third (and highest returned candidate) was an Independent.
Collin Crowley Welsh Labour / Llafur Cymru 879 Elected
Lella Helen James Independent 1116 Elected
Ted Latham Welsh Labour / Llafur Cymru 1041 Elected
Collin Crowley sadly passed away in 2013, and the seat was then won in a by-election in October 2013 by Mike Davies (Labour). Mr Davies himself died the next year, after which Matthew Crowley, Collin's son, took the seat again for Labour.
Lella James, the Independent Councillor in Sandfields East who was herself Labour a good few years back, is standing down in 2017. In the nearby Port Talbot ward it looks like Lella's son, a chap called Ian James, has fallen victim to the bloodletting and is one of the de-selected Labour candidates. I understand that Crowley and Latham will stand again. With Lella out of the frame it leaves it odds on for a Labour threesome in Sandfields East. So who will be the Third Man (or woman) to enjoy themselves romping in the family bed?
Step forward a young gentleman named Sean Pursey. (Twitter account here: https://twitter.com /SeanMPursey)
When I saw a photo of Sean I immediately thought, "I think I know that bloke!" Then it came to me. When Boyo Kinnock was first sniffing around Aberavon, pressing the flesh, trying to impress, I remember seeing a lot of photos on his social media where he was surrounded by a number of very young looking boys and the occasional young (and some not so young) women. The photos were generally snapped in pub or club lounges (golf club by the looks of the one I've published below), trying to sell the viewer an image of comfortable working class (?) solidarity in places where some of our more stuck up choosy Neath councillors would never be seen dead. In fairness, neither would Boyo Kinnock normally be seen there, but sometimes even the pampered son of the nation's premier Champagne Socialist family has to choke on a half of bitter instead of sip a glass of Premier Cru. I'm sure he had a good shower and made up for it all afterwards.
No doubt stacking the images with young people was meant to sell a message of change, of hope, of a new future. And young people haven't lived through the political disappointments and subsequent disillusionment of us more senior folk. Accordingly, they are more idealistic - or more easily led would be another way of putting it. But it worked for Boyo. The people of Aberavon and Port Talbot fell for it hook, line and sinker, the bloody mugs! Just in that photo alone there were six votes for Kinnock to snatch the Aberavon candidacy. And he took it - by one. Thanks, kids!
A club somewhere in Port Talbot, early 2014
I'm convinced Sean is one of those young acolytes of Kinnock and is second from the left in the cosy image above. I could be wrong - he may have a doppelganger. As Sean is now only 22 then he must have been only 19 back then, barely old enough to drink alcohol legally. And probably so wet behind the ears that he swallowed all the BS that spewed out of Boyo's mouth. Don't think I'm being unduly harsh on these young politicos. I was 19 myself once and thought that I and the group I hung around with knew it all. One can imagine the effect that the vastly more mature, worldly, manipulative Kinnock had on impressionable young people who were likely just awakening politically. Just the Kinnock name itself might have been enough to see some of them running eagerly home to Mam and Dad, bursting to tell them who they had been drinking with that evening. If you think this is me being just my usual vitriolic self when it comes to the Kinnocks, their ilk and their supporters, then think again. The internet is awash with photos posted by political wannabes like Sean, proudly lined up alongside "celebrity" names like Alan Johnson, Alastair Campbell, Peter Hain and even Christina Rees and Jeremy Miles. Like moths to a candle-flame! (Flies to a cowpat, surely, Stan?)
But back to 2017 and I wondered what Sean does for a living nowadays. Had the promises of Boyo to protect and provide jobs and investment in Port Talbot borne fruit? Well it certainly has for Comrade Sean. Because his Linkedin account reveals that since November 2015 he's had a tidy little public sector number - working in Boyo's office as a Communications Officer. The rate for the job is £16,000 to £26,093 per annum (outside London).
I'm getting a little bit concerned about how many of our local MPs' staff are trying for seats on the NPT Council. They can't have been in their existing jobs since before May 2015 but suddenly feel an irresistible urge to milk the taxpayer even further represent local communities - in at least one case where they don't even live!
I'm as keen as anyone to see a good age, gender, race balance - you name it - on our Council, but I don't want it just ram-jam-packed with those already well paid on the public purse who sit on their arses in nice warm offices, paid for by us. Perhaps one of the problems is if you are in a real job of work, time is money for you, and becoming a councillor is just impossible. If you are a plasterer, when you haven't got your trowel in your hand, you ain't earning. Contrast that with the local staff of MPs who seem to be on a continual merry-go-round of trips to Westminster, visiting local hostelries, events, dinners etc. They've got it cushy by comparison and would have a rude wake up call if they ever had to be on site by 8 in the morning, working in the cold or the rain. The trouble is, you see, just look at their role models - Stephen Kinnock and Christina Rees. Just ask yourselves - how much real work have these two ever done in their lives? They have profited from nepotism and no doubt cronyism just about all their working lives, while our own sons and daughters have to compete for scraps in a world where it's what you know not who you know, and get woken by an alarm clock at 6 am, not stroll in to a lovely warm office at 9am and put the bastard kettle on. No, these politicians and wannabes wouldn't last five bloody minutes out of their cosy, comfortable, subsidised environments.
Need I say more?
