I popped up to the county council’s elections office in Goodwick this afternoon to see if I could find anything interesting in the candidates’ expenses returns for the 2012 elections.
And who should be there but the author of that other website busy ferreting through the files.
Rather worryingly, he had the self-satisfied look on his face of a man in possession of an important secret.
He was unusually tight-lipped about what he had discovered, so I am deeply concerned that he might have stumbled on a scoop.
When we returned to Haverfordwest, I took him to the Bristol Trader and plied him with pints of diet coke, but the usually talkative member for East Williamston would not be drawn.
No doubt, all will be revealed when he puts up his next post.
If it is something new and interesting, it will be a blessed relief to his loyal readers who have had to exist on a diet of bread and water since he first burst on the scene with his “Partygate” revelations almost eighteen months ago.
They are both to be commended for their forbearance.
Sadly, my own researches didn’t reveal much other than that the IPPG is made up of a bunch of DIY merchants.
You will recall that Cllr Rob Lewis told the Ombudsman’s investigator that he produced his party colleagues’ election material on the council’s computers as Word documents.
These were then sent to the printer Clive James who converted them into Quark Xpress before returning them to Cllr Lewis for proofing.
Once proofed and approved, Cllr Lewis gave Mr James the nod to proceed to apply ink to paper.
It seems that this was not exactly how things went because the only invoice I could find with Mr James’ name on it was one for £150 filed by Cllr Peter Stock.
Most of Rob Lewis’ other clients claimed for just paper and printer cartridges presumably so they could run off a thousand or so leaflets on their own computers.
So poor old Clive James did all that print-setting and all he got in return was a measly £150 from Peter Stock.
It strikes me he might have a claim for breach of copyright against these cheapskates.
If I was him, I’d be on the phone to Rob Summons.
I will update in the morning when I have had more time to study the documents.
