Friday 27 April 2012

Election round-up: the gloves are off (Part 2)

If Labour's choice of candidate in Hengoed ward in Llanelli is mystifying, it is doubly so over in Glanaman, where disgraced entrepreneur and Twitter twit Shahid Hussain is Labour's official candidate. Despite hitting the headlines for a string of abusive messages about women, older people, gays and other groups the Labour Party would normally claim to champion, Shahid now has the support of Labour leader Kevin Madge, who is upset (see story here) that Shahid's conduct is being criticised by Plaid.

Kev thinks that Shahid's apology should have been enough, and he has said in previous interviews that Labour will be putting resources into the Glanaman campaign to try to win the seat for its man. The fact that nobody in their right minds would consider Mr Hussain a fit and proper person to take public office is not important in Kev's eyes, it seems.

Kev is also upset by criticism of council leader Meryl Gravell, saying, "she’s the longest-serving council leader in the country so she must be doing something right." Presumably he made the same argument about Margaret Thatcher when her reign was coming to an end.

If anyone had any doubts about Kev's willingness to buckle down to another 5 years of coalition with Queen Meryl and her closet Tories, doubt no more.

Meanwhile, in Ammanford itself, a bitter row has broken out between Labour and Plaid (details here). There Labour's Hugh Evans, who is stepping down from the council, has claimed that he has been targeted by Plaid with rumours about his health and his retirement plans.

Only those directly involved will know whether or not this is true, but for the rest of us, you have to wonder what possible advantage Plaid might gain from an attack on a man retiring from local government politics.

In the search for a motive, Miss Marple would almost certainly be taking a very close look at the Labour camp, which seems to have decided that playing the victim might get it the sympathy vote.

All very naughty.

The South Wales Guardian also features a little contribution from the chief executive who has been forced to explain why his visionary overhaul of working practices has meant that many people across the county are finding that their rubbish is no longer being collected.

In a piece on the council's website, he explains that this has all been caused by getting rid of archaic working practices, such as actually emptying bins, and signs off as "Mark James CBE", a reminder to everyone that he is a Very Important Person.

He assures readers that the council will use "all means at its disposal" to ensure continuity of the service they are paying for. Anyone want to lend him a yellow jacket?





4 comments:

Jac o' the North, said...

If the length of time in power is the criterion by which one judges a leader then Joe Stalin must have been a great guy. And Franco, Ceaucescu, the North Korean dynasty . . .

Anonymous said...

most definite the amman valium.. it's been like that for years? and madge is getting a new bridge in the park. a new bridge, not a replacement, but a new one. not sure why, it does seem to go anywhere on the other side, just into some wasteland. then again, it'll look lovely.. pity it's right next to the road bridge approximately 20 yards away with it's pavement leading past the derelict area 10 yards away.

mark james in a hi visbibilty coat? half the time the fodcaddies aren't emptied properly. makes you wonder who is running the show? mangers have known about the job and finish for ages.. so, if they finish 2 hours early, say 6 men. that is 12 man hours. if they are on £7 an hour, that's £84. do that a few times a week and that's where the council tax is wasted.
so if they have been doing a 6 hour job. why have they been contracted for 8 all along? anymore suprises hidden? 12k a year is one man's pay. it would have been better to employ the extra man rather than doubling up to make up the man short and finsih early and go home. not very good working practice i say, wonder if their union approves them working through lunch and working too fast messing things up for everybody else? how else could they manage job and finish? seems like the binmen have been robbin us lol (anon2)

Anonymous said...

trouble with job and finish is the refuse collectors have ballsed things up for themselves now.. if mark james and the public reckon they can do an 8 hour shift in 6, why the need to employ them at 8 hours.. it wasn't job and finish that caused the backlog of refuse, trackback to the easter monday refuse collection.

the refuse guys cannot say ok we'll slow down and stretch 6 hours into 8, because they have already done it in 6 lol. so if they have done it in 6, why should the council taxpayer have to pay the extra 2 hours a day?

stupidity.. everybody is spoiling it for everybody. they could have had a nice little number there if they hadn't gone public with their dispute and strike threat.

then again, if they hadn't gone public, we wouldn't have known about their little scam.

wonder how many other little scams are going on around the county? lol

don't tell me, abergwili museum or somewhere will close due to the 10k the binmen got by working job and finish

Anonymous said...

someone asked me earlier on, how are they paying for all this with community first involvement?
i replied european grants. playpark, zipwires and the like comes from wren grant. which could be a bit intersting.
where does wren get it's money from? landfill community grant - according to the wren website, the nearest landfill is near cwmgors (neath and port talbot) and have to be within 10 miles to be eligible.. nothing to do with cwm environmental then.

still a bit unanswered where the £8,500 shortfall lays regarding pantyfynon park, ammanford.

as for madge's bridge, quite unknown at the moment who os paying for it. whether it's euro money or not. then again, madge was on about another rotting bridge not so long ago, the swing bridge. funny how they can't fix the wood planking on the swing bridge but building a new one upstream.

communities first pantyfynon ammanford are branching out a bit to the gwendraeth valley. it's not local anymore and wonder how far after this? as long as they don't start looking at bowling alleys. you never know with this lot, they've already caused enough damage