Please be aware that this post contains the occasional word(s) that some may find offensive. Reader discretion advised. Words like "Welsh Labour Party" and "Freemason" spring to mind.

It seems I may have upset Councillor Michael Harvey, the Welsh Labour Party representative for Coedffranc North. He waded into Twitter on 10 April, excitedly announcing in a large print post "Just discovered who Stan is or is it **** is #gutless wonder" (see below). In order to respect the privacy of the man who was named I have asterisked his name out. I'm really disappointed in Harvey. An ex-South Wales copper like him fitting up the wrong man? That couldn't happen, surely? I'd also have expected an insult a bit more erudite, something with even the slightest hint of wit or intelligence. Yes, even from one of our Labour councillors and an ex-Plod.

Debbie Harvey, his wife, is standing in the Dyffryn ward. She used to canvass with Lord Hain and here's his very recent advice put out on Twitter:

Well that's you told then, Councillor Harvey!

Straight in to retweet Harvey's "gutless wonder" post was Debbie (I'd expect that), but also Alan Lockyer, who represents Neath North (expect that too). Then Mark Protheroe – Lockyer's fellow Labour councillor in Neath North, got in on the action. To be fair to Mark, I think he is somewhat in the shadow of his fellow Neath North councillor, Alan Lockyer, and was probably easily sucked in to the Twitter conversation. But Mark is the councillor with the lilac tie who, with the local rozzers, launched Operation Avalanche in Neath Town Centre late in 2016 - one objective being to get beggars off our streets. The beggars were still there when I walked through Neath just days after the launch. And are there to this day. Indeed, one wag said there were four of them sporting red rosettes and giving out leaflets around town a few weeks back! I'm all for giving life's unfortunates a leg up. Credit to Welsh Labour, it has a long history of the Party being the making of many a down and out who wants to get on in life.

But then another Lockyer felt the need to get in on this "Trial by Twitter" as well. Someone called Luke.

Luke linked the others to the song "Stan" by the exceptionally talented White rapper Eminem. Now since that song is essentially about a psychopathic nutter, I think I get the message. So normally, while I would not want to drag third parties into things, Luke, my boy, welcome to the show!

Coincidentally, Luke Lockyer, just like dad Alan once did, works at a high level in teaching music in one of our local education establishments. Luke is the Head of Music in Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive so the boy's done well for himself. He worked in Dwr-y-Felin while Dad lectured Music in Neath College right next door, until retiring in recent years.

And just like his dad Alan, Luke is a Freemason in the Gnoll Lodge. The plot thickens. So do I now have the Freemasons after my head as well as the La La, Loony, Local Welsh Labour Party?

Luke is a member of the local Masonic group "the Goatriders", apparently based on an old tale that the Devil will appear riding on a goat's back – at least I sincerely hope that's what it was, because I'm pretty sure there's a law against the other sort of goat riding that springs to mind. If you think I'm making this up, I'm not, because there really is such a group of Neath's finest. Here's a photo of the Goatriders swaggering along one of our streets in Neath seemingly posing as something out of the film Reservoir Dogs. Whoever posted it onto social media gave it the title of "the March of the Goatriders". Luke is the Goatrider whose face is blanked in red. I have also, to avoid embarrassment and protect the privacy of others, blanked out the remaining faces, plus names commenting on these lads about town. Grown men behaving like a bunch of kids (goatriders – geddit?).

"Someone better call the Sheriff - the Goatriders are in town." 

  - "The Sheriff's one of them, you fucking muppet!"

-----------------------------------------------------------

Here's an interesting link as to how the Goatriders and Freemasonry are related:

http://www.masonicdictionary.com/goat.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Now just to educate Councillor Michael Harvey and his other Twitter partners in crime a bit more (do I HAVE to keep doing this?) - I am NOT the someone they have insulted and called **** on Twitter. I have NEVER met anyone by that name (at least not knowingly). I am STaN. I am a real person. I explained all this months ago to their "Reverend" Peter Rees, the councillor for Neath South, when he referred to me as being fictitious. I am NOT someone from an Eminem song. And I'm NOT going anywhere. You lot had best remember that. I write under the acronym STaN but I don't reveal my real name, much to the chagrin of my Labour "friends".

And I'd like to send a special message to Councillor Alan Lockyer, about his contributions to this affair - reproduced below. "Malicious communications"?? Did you get that legal advice from your good pals and fellow bon vivants Christina Rees and Jeremy Miles? If so you'd better ask for your money back because I'm sorry to tell you this - they have sold you a pup. And to make those cheap jibes on social media about the surname of the bloke you thought was me - linking his name to a monster - that's pathetic and childish behaviour for any adult let alone one of Labour's more senior councillors. The "hooked nose" epithet that Lockyer used to describe him could yet become his political epitaph. It's a descriptor oft used in the context of "hook nosed Jew". Lockyer had better hope that the bloke he referred to is not Jewish or he could end up in deep shit! He may even need to call on those Masonic connections of his.

Now I reckon these councillors should stop behaving like kids (see what they made me do - I can't get goats out of my head now) in a playground with their ridiculous name calling of this poor bloke ****, leave him out of things and if they've got a beef - pursue it with me. Don't traduce the reputation of a third party. In my opinion by behaving like a pack of schoolground bullies these councillors have let themselves and their public down. But there again, we should be used to it by now.

The proper thing to have done following my letter to the Neath Ferret dated 12 April (see below), wherein I pointed out to them they had mistakenly picked on the wrong guy, would have been to apologise publicly to the gentleman they insulted. That would have been seen as the act of mature adults taking responsibility for their actions. I've let things lie awhile to allow them to think things over and do the right thing. They have chosen not to. An apology would have defused this affair, enhanced mine and others' opinion of them and done away with the need for me to raise it again in this article. Lockyer fils will recall that all the Eminem "Stan" wanted "was a lousy letter or a call". All I wanted was a lousy apology - for someone else.

I have noted that all three of these councillors are wont to dress in their nice suits and be photographed with the great and the good, posting photos on their social media and massaging each other's egos thereafter. Well someone posted on the Neath Ferret the other day that "A man makes a suit. A suit doesn't make a man". In the case of these three fellows, I couldn't agree more.

-----------------------------------------------------

Postscript: Reproduced below is the letter published on the Neath Ferret website in early April, pointing out to the councillors concerned that they had fingered the wrong man. I also asked that they issue an apology to the aggrieved individual.