"The only revolution needed in the Neath area is for someone to come up with a cure to release we normal people from the embarrassment of reading the hate fuelled posts of these two prats- LW and our Stanley- the darling of the Editorial team.
The mind boggles when reflecting on these two, in particular, devoting their lives on a daily basis digging for dirt against anything Labour. On a slow day they quite blatantly make it up, such is their affliction.
As an aside, one wonders about those judges of fairness - the Editors. They have threatened to ban Trolls and yet they foster the publication of the offensive twaddle from this pair (in particular)".

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The above was posted on the Letters Page of the Neath Ferret on 7 March 2015 by David Lewis. Mr Lewis is an NPT County Borough Councillor - Independent (unaffiliated) and a Cilybebyll Community Councillor (Independent Labour). Before I go on any further, I should say that being called silly or rude names by someone like David Lewis is water off a duck's back to me but if it makes him feel better for it then I'm quite relaxed about him carrying on in this vein. In fact, I hope he carries on, because Mrs Stan wondered what had put such a smile on my face the evening I first read it.

They say the pen is mightier than the sword (actually, it was novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839, in his historical play Cardinal Richelieu), but before David Lewis goes on a rant again, if I was him, I'd sign up for some fencing lessons rather than make a further ass of myself. Or stick in there, and invest some of those generous Council payments he's been getting into a course on Creative Writing, or even a Thesaurus. Just say the word and I'll find you a good one and drop it in to Red Square for you. And I won't charge you a penny. I'm always happy to do a bit of charitable work.

In his periodic outbursts, Councillor Lewis' ongoing support for the Labour Party astonishes me and I am left wondering if by doing so he hopes one day to return to the inner sanctum of the Kremlin in NPT. I pose this question partly because Councillor Lewis is now classed as "Independent" on Neath Port Talbot Council's website but as "Independent Labour" on the Cilybebyll Community Council. Don't ask me why there is a difference. After all - it's the same bloke with presumably the same political views.  I've asked the question publicly of him before but he's chosen to keep us all in the dark, instead preferring to post the occasional diatribe along the lines you see in the opening paragraph above. Maybe hanging on to that Labour tag - at least in part, and also toadying up to Peter Hain and the Labour Party on the pages of the Neath Ferret , is just his way of showing some residual loyalty to a Party that seems to have been good to him in the years before he was sacked from his Cabinet post. Perhaps he has no intention of returning to the fold.

There is, or rather was, an Independent Labour Party formed in 1893 which became a co-founder of the Labour Party at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1975 it ceased to be the Independent Labour Party and reconstituted itself as Independent Labour Publications (ILP) a political pressure group, combining parliamentary and extra- parliamentary perspectives for democratic social change. Maybe that's what Councillor Lewis' "Independent Labour" now represents.

I can't help but note, courtesy of the NPT website again, that in the financial years between 2006/2007 and 2012/2013, just before he was cast out from the Inner Kremlin Cabinet into the wilderness, Councillor D Lewis' total allowances (salary) was £207,936 (and 77 pence). In addition, travelling expenses of £4,241.90. That's an average of over £30,300 every year.

He wasn't the only one of course. We currently have the Council Leader, his Deputy, and seven Cabinet members all creaming off £30K-ish, plus eight Councillors chairing various Committees on £22K, and Leader of the Opposition on £22K a year. Then the Mayor and Deputy on 22K and 16K respectively, followed by all the remaining 44 Councillors on their £13,300 per annum. The Council's accounts for 2013/14 shows Members' remuneration as being £1.211 million. Over the last eight financial years its lowest figure was £1.186 million, the highest £1.325 million. The average is £1.249 million.  

These salaries and allowances are set for all Councils by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales. Besides setting the quantum of particular salaries and allowances they specify a maximum number of "senior salaries" for elected members that a Council can pay. This figure is calculated by means of looking at the overall number of councillors and applying a percentage reduction so as to arrive at the "seniors" number. For NPT the figure works out at 18 "senior" posts, plus the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. You won't be surprised to know that NPT Councillors have taken full advantage of this figure - there are 18 senior salaries being paid, plus the Mayor and Deputy. Apart from the salary paid to the member who is the leader of the Opposition Group, none of the other posts that receive enhanced salaries are insisted upon by the Independent Remuneration Panel. Who gets them and how many get them (up to the maximum of course) are a matter for individual Councils.

Let's try and put David Lewis' salary and allowances and those of our other "senior" councillors into some kind of perspective locally. Dai's hero, that perennial subject of his fawning veneration, is the Rt Hon Peter Hain MP; "Neath's Incredible MP"and "Neath's Great MP" in Dai's own words. Hain is on record as saying that miners in Aberpergwm (who let's be honest, actually know a bit about working for their money) were on a  salary of "up to £30K a year" and defined such jobs as "good jobs with a good rate of pay".  

Even for those members on a "basic" £13.3K, this rate has been set on the basis of it representing three days work, based originally on a percentage of the all Wales full time, median, gross annual salary. This is because on average, the duties of a backbench councillor take up about three working days each week. That would equate to a full time equivalent salary of over £22K per annum, not a bad wage packet in local terms by any means! I'm not aware of any special skillsets or educational requirements for the posts, though in most areas in South Wales a blind allegiance to a certain cult (thank Goodness I spelt that correctly) is most helpful. £13.3K pa is the equivalent of earning about £256 every week of the year. Good job these councillors don't have to face one of the alternatives, like Job Seekers Allowance - that gets you up to a princely £72.40 a week. Not for them a job like so many others in Wales where they are paid less than the Living Wage; not for them a zero hours contract. And look at the prospects for promotion, albeit it's nearly always dead men's shoes! Next step up the ladder you'll be on £22K, get another one you're on £30K. Hell's bells, it's even been known for them to go on to become an MEP, a veritable lottery win by comparison.

It's worth bearing in mind (because Councillor Lewis' rant was under a discussion about second jobs and MPs) that for many councillors, these salaries are second incomes too. But very lucrative second incomes indeed. Some councillors hold positions or businesses outside but many others will aleady have retired and their income in retirement, both from Old Age pensions and occupational pension schemes will be considerably enhanced by being a councillor. Income wise this puts the more senior of them quite a few rungs up the ladder from lots of the people they represent. Nothing inherently wrong in that, of course. They are working for that extra money after all, and as I've said, their pay has been independently set. But perhaps that explains why on the odd occasion I have spotted one of the Inner Kremlin in Neath, they are always well dressed and seem to be heading for Marks and Spencer. No faggots and peas in the market for them - unless it's a photo opportunity.

I think I can see now why we've not heard one iota of criticism about our Neath MP's excessive expenses claims from anyone in the Inner Kremlin or David Lewis. When you've been pulling in about £30K plus a year yourself, often as a supplement to other incomes already coming in to your household, you wouldn't want to draw attention to yourself by criticising the financial excesses of your local MP, especially when he's in the same Party as you. I am, however, very disappointed in our Independent and Plaid members on the Council, who likewise seem to have been struck dumb on the subject. Very, very disappointed indeed!

My final advice to Councillor Lewis would be to put lots of Factor 50 on this summer. That skin of his seems to be getting perilously thin in his senior years! But I do look forward to his next outburst on the Neath Ferret's pages. Mrs Stan wants to see me smiling again.
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