Lumpy Carpets - Part One

After a couple of weeks spent down in Llanelli, it's time to head back to County Hall in Carmarthen where it's very much business as usual.

Four years after winning the libel trial against blogger Jacqui Thompson, the chief executive and a gaggle of highly paid council staff have been busy launching what Mr James is surely hoping will be his final grand offensive against the Llanwrda housewife.

Last year Mr James went to the police with a dossier put together by council staff to complain that he was the subject of criminal harassment. One of the items handed to the constabulary was a blogpost in which Mrs Thomspon referred to "lumpy carpets" in County Hall (she was actually quoting a newspaper).

Unsurprisingly, the police went through the motions and decided not to pursue the matter.

Undeterred, Mr James, or more likely council staff burning the midnight oil on his behalf, has now come up with a second dossier for the attention of the police, and he has complained yet again of harassment.

Jacqui Thompson has been asked to attend an interview under caution on 16 March. On 23 March she will be attending a court hearing in which Mr James is applying for the forced sale of the Thompsons' family home.

But Mr James is not just keeping the police and courts busy. Another set of complaints has gone off to the Public Services Ombudsman alleging that Cllr Siân Caiach has breached the Code of Conduct for councillors.

The two complaints are understood to be closely related, and if the Ombudsman opens his filing cabinet, he will find that his predecessor dismissed another barage of complaints against Cllr Caiach in 2012, telling him that he needed to grow a thicker skin.

The timing of all this activity is interesting, so long after the trial. Cneifiwr pointed out last year that the complex series of legal depth charges being laid would go off in the spring of 2017 to coincide with another important date in Mr James's diary when he dons his other very well remunerated hat as returning officer for this year's council elections.

Seasoned observers of Mr James's very long career know that meticulous planning is one of his strengths, but perhaps it is just pure coincidence that the grand offensive has been timed for the precise moment that the council goes into purdah ahead of the elections.

Coincidence or not, Mr James's actions will now be immune from scrutiny during normal term time, and he must be hoping that the show will be over by the time the new council gets down to its first real business in June, with the new crop of councillors being presented with another fait accompli.

But you can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, and there will be collateral damage. Plaid Cymru in particular must be squirming at the thought that the election campaign will be overshadowed by Mr James's pursuit of what, in theory at least, is a purely personal legal matter, albeit one which was almost entirely funded and resourced by the council itself.

As for Cllr Caiach, isn't it funny how Mr James's complaints to the Ombudsman always seem to happen around election time?

The fact that Plaid inherited the mess from previous Labour-Independent administrations may not cut much ice on doorsteps. Voters are not known for their fair-mindedness in matters such as these, and it will be interesting to see how Labour plays its set of rather grubby cards.

Part two of this story will follow at the weekend.