I never thought last week would include hearing the journalists Emily Maitlis and Nick Ferrari refer to a Cwmbran councillor on the popular podcast, The Newsagents, and breakfast talk show on LBC radio.
And I never thought I’d end the week trying to untangle what did or didn’t happen at the opening of Lidl’s new store in Cwmbran. But both of these topics will be covered in this article following an interview I did with Cllr Dave Thomas, Llantarnam Ward.
Running Cwmbran Life gives me highs and lows. I had the privilege of meeting two sisters on Saturday and hearing them pay tribute to their late father. A lovely high.
But also last week a former Labour councillor questioned why I was publishing stories on the by-election in Trevethin and Penygarn and felt I should only do stories about Cwmbran. A Reform UK member told me they feel I’m ‘Labour’. A Green Party member thanked me in person for sharing coverage on their candidate, as did an Independent candidate.
A few months ago I bumped into a Liberal Democrat member (he stood in the Westminster elections last year) outside a Cwmbran pub and we had a couple of pints and got on the same bus home. In December I spent a few hours in a Newport bar owned by an Independent candidate who stood in last year’s general election..
The Boris Johnson mug above belongs to a mate and another mate often appears in local Labour party photos canvassing for them. At last year’s general election count, I spotted an old mate from Cwmbran who I met through Twitter years ago- due to a shared love of good beer. I hadn’t seen him in person for a couple of years and he’s now an officer with Reform UK’s Torfaen branch.
I was also invited to a party held last Saturday with Reform UK following their first election win in Wales- the Trevethin and Penygarn by-election. I declined.
And on Saturday, I bumped into a Labour community councillor and we had a brief chat about a recent crime in the town.
These stories are just to paint a picture of my love of meeting people. I love talking to interesting people. I try my best to get on with people. If people lose their trust in me, I’ll stop getting calls, emails and messages about stories.
Last year I called someone out after they made claims about Cwmbran Life being biased. I asked the person to their face for some examples of bias, and the three examples I was given almost made me spit out my coffee laughing.
During last Thursday’s by-election count, I was the only journalist there and spoke to both Stuart Kyte, Reform UK, and Stephen Senior, the new Conservative councillor on Pontypool Community Council, in the minutes after both their wins.
I left my house on a cold, dark Thursday night for an election count as the only journalist because I just feel it’s important that people can get information from a trusted source and not just read comments and views in the messy world of social media. I love seeing things myself and writing stories on what I see and hear- not what others claim on social media.
I always try to bring a calm, balanced voice to the madness of social media. I’ll address the Wild West of social media comments around elections in another Viewpoint post in the next few weeks.
The Trevethin and Pengarn ward in Pontypool was vacant following the resignation of Labour’s Cllr Sue Malson in November 2024. In January 2024 a story appeared in the media after Sue filmed herself swearing, making threats and warning unnamed people about making “false allegations” against her.
A story on Nation Cymru quoted Cllr Anthony Hunt, Torfaen Council leader, saying he didn’t condone the video but added: “However, the video was a spontaneous response to verbal and physical threats when she was alone late at night, unwell and feeling particularly vulnerable.”
I didn’t use the story or try to follow it up. A video of someone on their talking to their mobile phone camera and appearing in distress, gave me a few issues so I just left it.
Was that the right decision? Could it be used as a reason for me not covering the two stories last week that have both made the local and national media?
I told Cllr Thomas about how I didn’t use that story. I wear my heart on my sleeve and was happy to tell him about that dilemma and how last week’s two stories were also a dilemma.
I didn’t do stories on the opening of Lidl or the discovery of offensive lyrics on music tracks with Dave’s name on them. When a story goes across the media it’s hard for me, on my own, to make sense of it and try to add some calmness given my time and resources constraints.
I love giving people space to tell their stories. So I didn’t do stories last week but instead am picking them both up here after going straight to the horse’s mouth- and sat down with Dave to give him space to talk more.
I went to the same secondary school as him (for a couple of years). He’s one of Llantarnam’s three Reform UK councillors. All three were regularly very vocal on social media about being Independent. When Cllr O’Connell was elected to the ward in February 2023 he told the Argus: “My view is local politics has no place for political parties. People realised local elections are about local politics. What Kier Starmer or Rishi Sunak do doesn’t have any influence on education in Torfaen for example.”
Last August, Cllrs Thomas, O’Connell and Alan Slade decided to link themselves to a political party and joined Reform UK. I had people asking me to do stories about petitions to call for a by-election.
I didn’t follow them up as politicians can switch parties (or go from Independent to align themselves with the policies of a political party) at all levels of government. It’s part of the democratic process we have in the UK. If you feel it’s wrong, start a wider campaign and focus on getting it changed so a by-election has to be called if someone decides to change allegiances after you’ve put an X against their name.
At this week’s by-election count, I asked Dave if we could have a chat and after grabbing a coffee, we found an empty meeting room. I explained that, unlike most media that have covered the two stories involving him, I live in the town, and will probably bump into him this week.
I can’t hide once I press publish so I care about every word that appears on Cwmbran Life. I worked as a journalist for the South Wales Argus about 25 years ago. During one court trial I was covering, two of the defendants in the dock were a bit younger than me in school but I knew them and one of them lived about 50 metres from my house so after seeing me in court, we’d both park in the same street. We were neighbours. Now that puts a lot of pressure on getting things right, and being fair and accurate in what you publish.
Anyway back to the meeting with Dave. I didn’t want to get things wrong and just wanted to ask him a few questions about both stories. He was happy for me to get my phone out to record a voice note for accuracy and use Cwmbran Life to share his responses.
I told him that whatever I choose to publish, or not publish, if he sees me in the week we’ll chat and keep the professional relationship we have. I’m here for the long haul (much to my wife’s dismay who often says “we can never leave Cwmbran because of Cwmbran Life!”) and treat everyone I meet with the same respect that I expect as a local, independent journalist.
First up was Lidl.
I read back to him the words he used in a social media post: “Absolutely thrilled to have the honour of officially opening the stunning, futuristic new Lidl store in Cwmbran today.”
These words and the photos of Cllrs Thomas, Slade and O’Connell stood by a ribbon holding scissors became a story after Lidl put out a statement saying: “On this occasion, no formal invitations were issued, and there was no official ribbon-cutting at our Cwmbran store opening.”
A Torfaen Council officer, not Lidl, invited the three councillors to the event and they accepted.
On arrival they couldn’t see the Pontnewydd Ward (Lidl is in Pontnewydd not Llantarnam) councillors or Anthony Hunt, the council leader, in attendance and were told by an officer that she hadn’t invited them.
He said two Lidl staff held up a ribbon and “their media guy” told them to “jump into the photo”.
Following that the photographer took a photo with them with Lidl staff before the councillors were told to get “out the way” for “just a photo with our staff”.
He said a manager took them on a tour and told them: “ ‘Thank you for coming, nice to see you, thanks for coming to open the store with us’. So I’m like ‘I can’t believe that we were the ones invited to officially open their store’ because we had the official invite from our officers.”
Dave said he asked the council officer for the photos.
He said: “Of course, I’m straight on it then aren’t I, that’s what you’ve got to do a councillor, self-publicity, no-one else is going to publicise you. I stick it up and everything’s good.”
Later that day he said Lidl’s head office contacted him to amend the post telling him “you weren’t officially invited to open the store”.
He said his response was: “Yeah, ok fine. Weird.” A further email asked him to delete the post because “you weren’t officially invited by Lidl”.
I asked if the invite from the Torfaen Council officer was to open the store or just attend as a guest?
He said: “The invite from her was to be at the official opening for the store. But when it became clear that we were the only ones there, because at that point we thought Pontnewydd [councillors] would be there, the Leader would be there. When we then questioned it and realised we were the only ones there we thought ‘jesus, we’re the officials from the council for this event and that was it and that’s why it was tweeted out the way it was.”
Cllr Thomas showed me a selection of photos on his phone from the event. One photo was of just Lidl staff stood along the ribbon and in the centre was a woman holding a pair of scissors making out she was cutting the ribbon. I asked him who she was and he said she was “one of the managers”.
I asked Cllr Thomas: “But would she say that she officially opened the story? I’m being really pedantic here.”
He said: “But then we don’t know because they didn’t do anything with it then. It’s just so weird.
“The reason why we were led to believe that we were officially opening it was because when we asked the questions, very valid questions mind, where’s the Pontnewydd councillors?, it’s their ward, not coming, haven’t invited them, where’s the leader, not coming. I think it was [Cllr Jason] O’Connell he went ‘you’d better start thinking of some lines to say’.
“As far as we were concerned we were the official openers from this authority. And that was it. It’s genuine.”
Next up, we spoke about the lyrics in some songs that were released a number of years ago under Dave’s DJ name, ‘Dowster’ and uploaded to various music channels.
A statement from Reform UK said: “All lyrics are samples from other music tracks and artists, none originate from Cllr Thomas.” They said the songs were created by another DJ (I’ve chosen not to include that person’s name here).
I asked him if the voice in the songs saying the lyrics was his voice? He said: “No. Not my voice at all.”
I then asked about one song, “Spak Attack,” and pointed out that it was his face and name Dowster, that appeared on the artwork.
I said: “So you were aware of the song title and your name is on it.”
He said a DJ friend moved to the area and he allowed him to use his studio and told him: “Whatever you make, put my name to it as well as yours and whatever money you make off it, I have a cut, that’s it. Job done, not a problem.
“I know this is what it is. I’m fairly convinced this is why he called the track that. Whenever the computer in the studio used to crash he would say ‘oh the computer’s spak’d out again. It’s had a ‘spak attack’ and I’m convinced that’s where the name of the track has come from. The name and idea has come from that.
“If you want to be woke and politically correct, you’re gonna go straight for the obvious, the cerebral palsy, this and the other.”
He said his friend is “not like that. He is not that kind of guy. I can vividly remember. When I’ve been making tracks with him, if the computer crashes, ‘aw, the computer has crashed again, it’s had a ‘spak out’, it’s had a ‘spak attack.’ He’s not taking the p*** out of anyone. He’s not that kind of person. He’s not.”
He then showed me an online search he had screengrabbed on his phone for the term ‘spak attack’ of an online dictionary that said it was “a fit of foolish rage or a tantrum.”
He added: “Because we knew the woke left would go for the usual mad angle to try and cause as much disru[ption as possible.
“But of course, what they’ve done is they’ve gone ‘oh that’s Reform. Let’s go at them.
“I wasn’t even in the studio when he was making that track. I absolutely know for a fact that’s what he used to say about the computer, whenever it used to go down.
“I’m one million per cent convinced that’s where that’s come from. Whether that’s a sample or whether that’s his voice.
“The track, nothing to do with me.”
He said his friend, the other DJ “is more than happy, if it comes to it, to do a statement to say so.
“What are they going to do next? Are they going to go after all the rap artists? Are they going to go after NWA? Are they going after Ice Cube? Are they going after Nicki Minaj, all the stuff she comes out with? Beyonce? It’s ridiculous.
“Real-life politicians are not whiter than white. Any politician that’s whiter than white hasn’t had any life experience at all. That’s why the country is in a mess.“
He referred to the Cllr Malson story and said: “I would question why you didn’t run Sue Malson because that is far more vile than any of the content on those tracks. Far more vile.”
He said: “These are dance tracks made by a boy who was down on his luck looking to make a bit of money.”
I really appreciate Cllr Thomas agreeing to take time out of the election count to talk openly with me for Cwmbran Life readers.
It’s helped me think about how I should cover challenging stories in the future as a sole local, independent journalist who just cares about trying to provide accurate information to cut through the noise of social media comments.
If the story about the former Trevethin and St Cadocs councillor came out now, I’d probably take a similar approach and see if I could give readers information from a sit-down interview and do things in my own slow, measured way.