It pains me to admit that, hitherto, I may have treated the Labour regime in Swansea with a certain levity unbecoming the seriousness of the situation. For the latest news paints a picture of democracy under a growing threat in the land of the Jacks. Among the information sent me was a copy of a letter submitted to the Evening Post by a Swansea councillor. (Click to enlarge.) The councillor in his letter talks of the “far left” and the behaviour he describes can only be compared to the rabble-rousers used by oppressive regimes to intimidate opponents.

For it would now appear that gangs of unkempt malcontents are roaming the city at the behest of the interlopers’ regime, terrorising opponents and interfering with people going about their lawful occasions. The letter clearly states that these ‘Marxist’ irregulars only target non-Labour politicians and events. Of course, the regime will deny any responsibility for these hirelings. That’s the attraction of using ‘deniables’.

Perhaps more worrying is the fact that this letter was not published by the Beans on Toast. Which is odd, for local rags are always looking for letters, quotes and other pearls from local tribunes . . . if only in the hope they’ll say something stupid, or contentious. So why was this letter, from a Swansea councillor, not published in Swansea’s daily paper?

Because, I suggest, it was critical of the Labour Party, and made a link between Labour and the ‘Marxist’ rabble-rousers. Why do I say that? Because the new editor of the Beans is Jonathan Roberts, former editor of the Carmarthen Journal. Under his leadership the CJ became the out-house publication for the Nazi-Soviet pact on Goal Hill controlled by Mark James. Seeing as the Journal Roberts left is little more than James’ mouthpiece it’s worth asking if he’s been installed in Swansea to carry out a similar role on behalf of Swansea Labour Party? Cos the boy got form when it comes to censorship and sucking up to Labour.

Leaving Swansea for a minute (always painful, I know), what we see there, and in Carmarthenshire, is part of a wider trend of Labour control resulting in corruption and censorship, and a general contempt for those outside of Labour circles, something I commented on in my previous post. Even Glyn Davies, the easy-going MP for Montgomeryshire, was moved to tweet this week about Wales being a one-party state. Read it here. Then there was the amazing case of the Labour councillor in Llandudno who threatened to have a publican’s license taken away because he refused to serve her after hours. What I find really worrying in this incident is that the woman even wrote to Carwyn Jones slagging off the publican . . . yet the First Minister, or his advisers, did not regard this vendetta as reason to remove a clearly vindictive woman obviously unsuited to be a political representative. That nothing was done suggests Labour accepts behaviour like this. (Which of course, those of us d’un age know only too well.)

In his unpublished letter the Swansea councillor refers to a genie, but I suggest that what’s happening in Swansea has passed beyond pantomime. It is currently on the fringes of farce, heading inexorably towards tragedy. There is still time to avert this disaster but outside intervention is needed. So will Labour HQ investigate links between certain members of Swansea Labour Party and law-breaking extremists? (The stick Labour has used to beat Plaid Cymru for 50 or 60 years.) Or can Labour rely on the ‘Welsh’ media to keep a lid on everything?

UPDATE 29.04.13: More information regarding the Evening Post and the suspected political bias of its new editor, Jonathan Roberts. First, Labour councillor John Bayliss had a particularly bitchy letter published recently in which he made a personal attack on a non-Labour councillor. At least four of the vilified councillor’s constituents wrote to the Post in his defence. Not one of the letters was published.

Moving round the Bay to Neath Port Talbot, a non-Labour councillor there has recently submitted two letters for publication, both critical of the NPT Labour administration, neither of them was published. The first time this has ever happened to this councillor.

The evidence is stacking up that the Beans on Toast is now a Labour-supporting newspaper. Which it’s perfectly entitled to be. What is not acceptable, when it’s an area’s only daily newspaper, is that the editor should suppress other opinions and criticism of the Labour Party. This is censorship. But then, Roberts would have had a good grounding in censorship techniques in Carmarthen.