We now know that Mrs Harry Potter aka Mrs Rachel Taylor is a Labour candidate for election to NPT council in May 2017. She is standing in the Taibach ward - along with husband Harry (Anthony J Taylor). I wonder if this is the same Rachel Taylor who previously worked for many years in the office of former Aberavon MP, Hywel Francis and apparently was herself a candidate in the early stages of the selection in the Aberavon constituency to replace him (see link below). Or are there two Labour politicos by that name running around the Aberavon and Port Talbot area?
When Labour was selecting a candidate to replace Francis, in a contest eventually won by a solitary vote by Boyo Kinnock, it was reported that a member of Francis’ constituency office staff contacted each of the frontrunners in the selection – Jeremy Miles, Stephen Kinnock, and Mark Fisher. They were asked if they would retain the current staff in the event of them winning the selection, and subsequently being elected as Aberavon MP. Kinnock and Fisher apparently said no (quite rightly). It is claimed that Francis' staff then proactively canvassed for Jeremy Miles.
Here's the story as reported in Left Futures.
http://www.leftfutures.org/2014/02/aberavon-the-mps-staff-and-the-financial-incentive-to-select-an-establishment-candidate/
Interesting to note in the comments on the article that the Taibach ward backed Jeremy Miles. Taibach has two councillors on NPT, both Labour. And one of these is, and was at the time of the selection of the candidate for Westminster, none other than Mr Harry Potter aka Anthony J Taylor. That's a coincidence.
Let me make it clear that I am not suggesting it was Rachel Taylor did the ringing round referred to in the article. But if this report in Left Futures is correct - then somebody working for Francis obviously did. Mr Francis' local office does not come out of the whole selection affair at all well.
Another thing I've noticed recently is that Harry's Linkedin profile seems to have disappeared. He joins a growing band of Labour Party social media aficionados caught in STaN's spotlight - including Jan Lockyer, and then Christina Rees' future son-in-law. I'd swear Harry used to have an online CV. But no doubt all those years learning magic tricks under Prof. Albus Dumbledore aka Derek Vaughan have been put to good effect, and he's vanished it away. I wonder why? (For those who didn't know, Potter works (or worked) for Dumblebore Dumbledore as a Researcher when the Professor became an MEP).
In my opinion there's only two reasons for rubbing out your online CV. The first is that it's of no use to you any longer. You're not going anywhere and are happy working where you are. The second is that there is something about it that you don't want people to see. Could it be the fact that since leaving Cardiff University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2001, Potter's (now invisible) CV revealed he had done only one "real" job, an Anti-Social Behaviour Prevention Officer with NPT Council for less than two years. All the rest of the time have been "non-jobs" as I would call them, political researcher for Carwyn Jones and then Derek Vaughan. Then his local political "career" as a councillor for Taibach (now elevated to a Cabinet post nonetheless). Is this an embarrassment to him? No idea, but it would f***ing well embarrass me if less than two years as an ASBO officer was the only real job I had done in my lifetime!
Now this CV was there last year when I used it as background to something I wrote on Jac o' the North's blog entitled "All aboard the Gravy Train". So here is what I wrote again - even Merlin himself can't make that disappear:
http://jacothenorth.net/blog/all-aboard-the-gravy-train/
Despite still having the appearance of an innocent adolescent, Harry Potter has shown he can get down and dirty with the best of them. Here's a report at the time of the 2008 elections when he was Labour's campaign co-ordinator, a campaign described by Councillor Martyn Peters, a man with 35 years of experience of elections at that time, as "by far the worst for dirty tricks – and there was no need for it". The Wales Online headline leads with the word "sleazy" and the comment "LABOUR Party supporters staged the most vicious and dirty campaign in Neath’s election history, it has been claimed".
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/sleazy-does-it-2174774
But in fairness to Harry he doesn't play dirty tricks all the time. Because I have heard that in Council and committee meetings he is impeccably behaved, seldom uttering a word.
Anthony J Taylor dressed for Council
Harry Potter, who was educated at Hogwarts
Finally, these Labour family dynasties that are springing up all around our Council area make me very uncomfortable. How many more before the electorate catch on and say, enough is enough? Probably not quickly enough for our Taibach magician to think that he and his wife have discovered that which eluded other magicians, philosophers and great men and women for centuries - the secret of alchemy - turning what you touch into gold.
But if Harry was to delve deeper into the alumni of NPTHogwarts he would find that the secret of alchemy was actually discovered in Neath way back in 2004. That was the election wherein Sandra and John Miller, yet another married Labour couple, were elected to the Neath East constituency - and have been coining it in there ever since, Sandra currently holding a Cabinet post, just like Harry. The Neath East ward is a beacon of political involvement (not), just over 27% of its electorate turning out in 2012 to keep those allowances flowing in to the Miller household. The Labour Party is crapping itself that turnout will be high this time. Over 50% in many areas would surely see lots of them swept aside. A kind of Tsunami of the Vanities if you'll forgive the mixed metaphor.
A good outside bet for you from STaN - put some money on Harry getting the Deputy Leadership of NPT after May. If I read the runes correctly there's more than a few councillors, even in Neath, who are sucking up to him like a leech on a haemophiliac. Hoping some of Harry's magic will rub off on them, no doubt.
