The Baker's Dozen Labour Hope will regain Blaenau Gwent

Blaenau Gwent - The 8th worst place to live in the UK
(or so says Channel 4)

(next door to C4 CEO Andy Duncan was voted the worst)

This photograph taken in secret by Searchlight undercover
"black ops" team members shows the Green Arrow's
secret hideout, the underpants hung out to dry with
BNP logo on the 'Y' seam and I love Gerry Gable Really"
around the arse were a dead giveaway.

by johnofgwent

After yesterday's elation at the launch of the party's Euro election campaign and the media coverage it brought us, I thought I would pause today and reflect on the plight of a once well thought of constituency party who lost touch with its roots and failed to notice their aloofness and the arrogance of the party at national level had sown a wrath-laden crop whose bitter harvest would take years, even decades, to forgive and forget.

And whilst I would normally refrain from kicking a man when they are down, in the case of the party led by the one eyed scottish idiot, I'll make an exception.

So I read with mirth this article from our local rag the South Wales Argus giving the line-up for consideration by the Blaenau Gwent Constituency Labour Party from which to select the eternal optimist who wishes to try and undo the critical injuries imposed upon the Labour Party in Blaenau by "Blair's Babe Shortlist"

A FORMER Assembly cabinet minister, a former county borough council leader, and a sitting regional AM are among the potential candidates the Labour Party hopes can win back the prized and once safe Blaenau Gwent constituency.

A 13-name shortlist includes

• Former Clwyd West AM Alan Pugh, ejected from the Hot Air Pit In The Bay after losing his seat to the tories.
• Former Blaenau Council chief Hedley McCarthy, handed a P45 after Labour lost control to independents after last year's council election
• Alun Davies, current Labour regional AM for Mid and West Wales, who grew up in Tredegar and has been roundly criticised by Tory and Lib Dem leaders for his attack on the sitting AM Trish Law for her woeful attandance in the Cardiff Bay Hot Air Pit. A charge I would consider more serious if you wasters actually DID anything useful there, Mr Davies.
  
• Keren Bender, from Cwm, an official with the union Community who went up against sitting AM Trish Law last time, and got trounced for her trouble.
• Dave Hagendyk, described as a mere "Caerphilly Constituency Labour Party Member" but actually a former "Policy Officer" for the Labour Party in Wales and now a "Political Liason Officer" in the "University And College Union"
  
• Carmarthen county councillor Steve Lloyd Janes
• Caerphilly county borough councillor Hefin David
• Blaenau Gwent county borough councillor Jen Morgan
• Vale of Glamorgan county councillor Chris Elmore
• Newport East Constituency Labour Party (CLP) member Christopher Herriot
• Catherine Anne Antippas, Cardiff South CLP
• Graham Thomas, Cynon Valley CLP
• Simon Evans, Cardiff South CLP

Blaenau Gwent, once Labour's safest UK Parliamentary seat, has since 2005 become a wasteland for the party in all elections following a row over women-only shortlists that saw former Labour stalwart Peter Law, Mrs Law's late husband, already an AM, elected to the House of Commons as an independent at that year's General Election.

Personally I think someone, somewhere ought to have mentioned that thirteen isn't exactly a lucky number. except that if this is all they have to inspire us, it means Blaenau Gwent will be a Labour Free Zone for one year for each of the candidates !

Having spent twenty minutes poking round the net to find out something about these supposed "great and good" I have to say they've sure as hell kept a low profile. Any lower and they'd be working the seam at Tower Colliery !!

I'd put my name in the hat to stand against them for the BNP, but I prefer a challenge with some meat on it.