David Taylor MP was a remarkable man who would have stood out in a sea of other remarkable men. That as an MP he could only be compared to a sea of duplicitous, money grabbing, high living, self interested, control freaks only made his death more regrettable.

He had consistently campaigned for his constituents, attended parliament, spoke for the poor, the weak and the needy, and earned the admiration of all who came in contact with him. Yes, he had been caught by the parliamentary expenses scandal. He had to apologise for ‘a lack of judgement’ over claims for furniture and removal expenses, and agreed to repay £8,000, but against that, he had been judged 7th in a newspaper poll of the most cost effective MPs – those who gave the best value for money.

I don’t agree with his politics, but I admired the man.

Now Parliament has a new David Taylor. Not another MP to replace the member for Leicestershire North West, but one of that ever increasing breed of SpAds-U-Like, the special advisers brought in to give media, political or policy advice to their Ministers. Unlike the civil service whose duty is to advise a Minister impartially, the SpAds are political appointees eternally loyal to their political masters.

What a contrast to David Taylor MP that this David Taylor is.

This David Taylor is better known as the man behind the Aneurin Glyndwr web site, yet another of the Labour web sites which explain why they are no competition to the right wing blogoshere. The so called ‘Voice of Wales’ distinguished itself when it set up a bare ten months ago, by running a video depicting Deputy First Minister Leuen Wyn Jones as a Clown, and the Conservative leader Nick Bourne as a Vampire.

It is not the first excursion into childish on-line taunts by this political apparatchik, apparent spawn of Damian McBride. He is something of a Twitter expert, and managed to enrage most of Liverpool a week before the anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy when 96 young men died, by Twittering ‘ who do I hate most – Chelsea or Liverpool’ then ‘Liverpool, obviously’ followed by the taunt to Liverpool fans of ‘You’ll never walk again‘. He was forced to apologise.

Nor was this even his trial run at using the Internet to hurl offensive insults at political opponents whilst employed by the tax payer as a political advisor. He started young, as an 18 year old student studying politics at Wrexham College, he set up a web site vilifying Clare Short and calling for her to be thrown out of the Labour Party when she alleged the Government had bugged the United Nations.

He gets more interesting by the minute – when he was Leighton Andrews, the Labour Assembly MPs researcher, he was named as the Labour party official who was resposnible for getting 88 year old Walter Wolfgang thrown out of the Labour Party conference in a celebrated missuse of the then newly minted ‘Terrorism Act’.

A few years back, Tim Ireland did some excellent detective work on David Taylor, his prolific work on the Internet, his connections to that other spawn of Damian – Adrian McMenamin – memorably described by the Guardian as the ‘classically hostile New Labour gatekeeper’, and his promotion of articles such as ‘Gordon Brown: Homophobic or too busy’ which routinely show Gordon Brown in an unflattering light.

However, young David can wax lyrical when given subjects such as Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair, and other luminaries of the Nu-Labour project. Not a Gordon Brown man then, despite his personal ownership of the intriguingly named gordonbrown.org!

So which Minister would need political advice from this unedifying character, who has spent his career eulogising Blair supporters and being less than helpful to Brown supporters? Who needs a man who knows how to set up dodgy web sites, and has the time and the inclination to spend hours on line adding anonymous comments to other politicians web sites? Which Minister appreciates the advice of a Manchester United football supporter and bully of elderly men, who understands the black arts of SEO.

Step forward Peter Hain MP, Secretary of State for Wales.