What an embarrassing start to the election campaign for one of Welsh Labour's hopefuls to win a seat in the Aberavon ward. Colin Clement actually lives in Baglan at an address that the council website states comes under the ward of Briton Ferry East. Anyway, Colin Clement is clearly a man in a hurry, and hardly was the ink dry on the Returning Officer's forms before he was tweeting these:
Colin Clement accuses Plaid of "hypocisy" (sic) in a tweet about the Baglan seat, pointing out that the candidate does not "live in the ward". What that has to do with hypocrisy (spelt properly) I have absolutely no idea. But maybe there's a history to this that general readers of his tweets will be unaware of, in which case I'm sure we'll find out in due course. The Plaid candidate actually lives in Baglan Moors, hardly half a world away. And a lot closer to Baglan than Copenhagen was to Port Talbot! I haven't noticed him calling out Boyo Kinnock as a hypocrite.
Of course, what is hypocrisy would be to insult a candidate because they don't live in the ward, when the seat you are standing for yourself is outside your own patch. And if it was hypocrisy merely to stand in a ward in which you didn't live, then half the bloody Council are caught by the definition, including Council leader until May, Ali Thomas. I'm not at all sure that Colin Clement has a complete grasp of how his tweets can be interpreted by the general public.
Check out the second tweet by Clement. Plaid are "a load of chancers" in Aberavon. Well, chancers or not, I'd have a bet they'll poll quite a few more votes there this time than in 2012 and might give one or more of these Labour plodders a shock. He'd probably prefer to have an uncontested election like his Labour mates in Port Talbot where three of them are already assured of their seats on the Council. No such luck - I'm afraid you're going to have to do some hard yards there, old boy.
Last of all, Clement's final tweet and social media posting. Who's going to tell him that there's no "A" in "Independents"? The product of Labour's wonderful comprehensive school education I expect.
But who can fathom the workings of a mind like Clement's, so stuck in the past and full of stereotypical Old Labour prejudice that his tweets or retweets include references to the Tories as bastards and scum. Some of the nicest, most genuine and generous people I have known are Tories. And some of the most avaricious, spiteful, mean sons-of-bitches are members of the Labour Party. Mere membership of a political party does not a saint or sinner make.
I was particularly struck by this retweet as recently as a couple of months ago.
This is the sort of juvenile trash that has got many a politico into hot water but in my opinion is a good pointer to the utter contempt in which Clement holds those who support the Conservative Party that presently governs the UK. I have news for him - every one of those "Tory virgins" he think it's funny to disparage is the daughter of someone. And some may even be the daughters of Labour Party members! Look - I know it's only a joke, but by re-tweeting it Clement becomes the joke himself. Isn't it a curious phenomenon? These Labour dinosaurs who rail against inequality and unfairness, stick up for the rights of women, ethnic minorities, the LGBT community, Muslims etc - then think nothing of retweeting a sexist, misogynist "joke" which most people of ALL PARTIES, ALL PERSUASIONS would find tasteless, out of touch and quite frankly, puerile and pathetic. Little things please little minds and all that....
As you'll guess, Clement's insults at the Plaid Cymru challenges, and his blind hatred of all things Tory pissed me off just a tad. I expect a bit more finesse and intelligence from any councillor after my vote, so if I happened to live in Aberavon, which thankfully I don't, Clement would definitely not be getting mine.
One other thing before I go though. Why is Clement "following" on his Twitter, one Chloe Forsyth, a politics aficionado unknown to me?
Curiosity got the better of me, and you know, I don't think Chloe is that interested in politics at all:
I clicked on the link in her Pinned Tweet above, purely for research purposes mind. See what I do for you lot, to leave no stone unturned. You do not want to go there! You have been warned. I'd post one or two of Chloe's other tweets, but they are not fit for a (cough) quality blog like this. But clearly fit to be followed by one of Welsh Labour's Aberavon hopefuls.
People wonder why I have an almost pathological loathing of the Labour Party - I should qualify that and say Welsh Labour. Well it's precisely because it provides succour to the likes of people like Clement, people whose Neanderthal-like thinking that politics is a battle between "good" Labour and "evil" Tories, with the rest of us stuck in between, should have died out years ago. It also attracts and seems to welcome the self-serving, the narcissistic, the real chancers (not Plaid in Aberavon), the wolves in sheep's clothing, con-men, nepots, crooks, bullies and charlatans. Everywhere I look it's riddled with these sort of undesirables and to me is the absolute example in Wales of absolute power corrupting absolutely. I hope they get the kicking in May that decent people deserve to see. But I'm old enough and wise enough not to hold my breath..........
