Election news - twt, twt Tom

Time to get the bus out again for a quick trip to see what naughty things some of our wannabe councillors are up to.

 

First stop Kidwelly, where four candidates are battling it out. The sitting councillor is Labour's Keith Davies who has recently been heard saying that "we need to get rid of Meryl". Odd, then, that he voted to keep her in the no-confidence vote back in February.

Next up are Huw Gilasbey for People First and an "independent independent", Ray Day Davies.

Bringing up the rear we have Fran Burke-Lloyd who is understood to have been round to see Aunty Meryl for a chat over the rock cakes on how the "Independent" group are planning their campaign.

This is very strange indeed, because officially the Independent group is not a party, does not stand on a manifesto and does not run a campaign. It's just, in Stephen James's phrase, a "group of like-minded individuals" who come together after election day and suddenly realise that they all agree on everything.

 

While we head across county to our next destination, we have time to look at Labour's manifesto. This came out very late indeed, but has now landed with a thud on Cneifiwr's desk. Look, here it is. Whoever wrote it is very fond of bullet points.

Plaid has done a really good job (here) of comparing the promises with what Labour has actually done with its Independent chums over the last 8 years. It's a kind of political hokeycokey. First you vote to close luncheon clubs, try to foist public toilets on unwilling community councils, etc., then you promise to do the opposite.

And after we've done the hokeycokey, here's another old-fashioned game to keep you all amused. All you need to do is take a statement from a political leaflet, manifesto, etc. and insert the word "not" to decide whether you are being palmed off with flannel or worse.

Labour's bullet points will keep the family entertained for hours. Here are some taken from their "Key Commitments":

• Provide our communities with strong leadership
• Become beacons of best practice in the workforce
• Ensure best practice in Quality Service Delivery
• Support the principles of equality across the County
• Promote the Welsh Language across the County

To which you could add a continuing commitment to ensuring that bears use wooded areas when answering the call of nature, and that only Catholics may become pope.

As you read on, you will see that there is a lot of reviewing planned. A Labour administration would, for example, review the work of the Tourism Review Board. And as anyone who has had to prepare a corporate presentation knows, when you run out of ideas, you start promising to "liaise" with other people.

In the case of elderly people, Labour promises to "liaise widely".

Quite what all that means, is not clear. But at least they will be busy reviewing and liaising.

On town centre regeneration, residents of towns such as Llandovery, Llandeilo and Newcastle Emlyn may be surprised to hear that Labour considers them to be "black spots". That actually sounds more like a threat.

But time to stop all that, because we have now arrived back in Cilycwm, where sprightly Tom Theophilus has been spotted armed with leaflets which talk about Jacqui and Kerry Thompson's fraught relationship with the county council.

At least that means he doesn't have to talk about his own record, and his stand on the issue of local schools (crouching behind a wall may be more appropriate than the word stand here).

Cneifiwr will be awarding brownie points to anyone who can provide more examples like this from Cilycwm or anywhere else across the county.