Originally Posted by
blue sky
Unfortunately the new councillor, Andrea Gibson, is a Neil McEvoy fan. Rather than running a campaign focusing on Welsh sovereignty and free speech, which are the tenets to which he lately subscribes, he campaigned on litter and empty homes. Not one single word on Welsh nationalism or independence.
His campaign manager Matthew Ford is a machiavellian figure who used to be in the Green Party and is rather spooky. They focused on getting the vote out and knocked on every door of past and potential voters. Plaid’s vote only went up by about 100 from the last elections in 2017, but Labour’s vote halved. Once it is realised by the electorate that Mrs Gibson can’t and won’t solve Ely’s problems the the seat will probably revert to Labour in the next full council elections.
The hypocrisy of McEvoy is astonishing - on one hand campaigning against empty homes and on the other decrying the new homes being built in Cardiff. He also wants to bring back right-to-buy. He is a mix of a pound-shop Trump and a 99p-shop Tommy Robinson but without the charm. His constant sporting of a Bluebirds scarf is a lame attempt to curry favour by someone who was very much in favour of the rebrand.
And I write all this as a member of Plaid Cymru for over twenty years.