It’s kind of an unwritten rule that journalists should never be friends with politicians they write about, but that could never have been the case with Hefin.
There are all sorts of arguments about whether or not a journalist could have their integrity compromised when approaching stories about them – positive and negative.
I can honestly say I never had that with Hefin. He was big enough, and humble enough, to appreciate that I still had a job to do as editor of Caerphilly Observer.
In 2022, Hefin was censured by the Senedd’s standards committee for breaching the code of conduct for members for a comment he made on Twitter.
It was the second time that a post he made on the platform had landed him in hot water following similar comments in 2019.
Of course we reported the outcome of the respective investigations by the Senedd’s Standards Commissioner, and I know that Hefin wouldn’t mind me bringing this up again. A supporter of Caerphilly Observer since we started, Hefin would often bring the issue up himself whenever he spoke about our work.
Fittingly, our relationship began in earnest over something ‘negative’ I had written about him ahead of the then-Assembly election in 2016, when he was standing for Labour to represent Caerphilly.
At the time, there was a huge row brewing over plans by Caerphilly County Borough Council to implement a new Local Development Plan – a blueprint for the area which shapes planning decisions.
He was the only Labour member of the council to vote against the plan and I had pointed out that he was standing for the upcoming election.
Needless to say, this did not go down well with Hefin and I will always remember him giving me an earbashing over the phone when he saw the comment in print. I say earbashing, but that wasn’t really Hefin’s style at all.
The reason he was such a successful Senedd Member was that he could be persuasive and knowledgeable about a subject. Instead of demanding I print a retraction, Hefin offered to write me an opinion piece explaining why he was opposed to the LDP.
Over the years in our respective capacities as Senedd Member and local newspaper editor I got to know Hefin well.
What brought us closer was our respective familial experiences with autism.
Hefin was an absolute warrior when it came to ensuring support was there for autistic people and spoke many times in the Senedd about improving additional learning needs provision.
He was a huge supporter of Valley Daffodils and Sparrows – two community groups for children and young people with additional needs – and was a governor at Trinity Fields School.
Hefin helped our family with an issue regarding school support and it was he who got the ball rolling for us. For that I will forever be grateful.
And judging by the number of comments and tributes left, my family weren’t the only ones to have benefitted from Hefin going above and beyond in his efforts to help people.
An innovative politician who regularly held Q&A livestreams on his Facebook page, Hefin did have a propensity for putting his foot in it on Twitter (or X as it’s now called).
I asked him once why his Twitter persona was so different from how he actually was. He didn’t really have an answer for that and it remained a mystery as to why he used to needlessly make so many enemies on the platform.
Maybe it was an outlet to relieve the pressures that come with being a politician? Someone who puts themselves through a literal popularity contest every four or five years. I used to tell him that I couldn’t do that to myself, but Hefin held a desire and a duty to serve the public and his community.
He never took his position for granted either and always worried if he was doing enough for constituents – even if that meant being outspoken about the Labour Party.
I can’t help but think this may have been a reason he was continuously overlooked for a position in the Welsh Government. Last year when there was a reshuffle, he was devastated he wasn’t named a minister. He felt he had so much to offer – and I was in agreement.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described Hefin as a “powerful voice for the people of Wales” and it is a decision bordering on criminal that he wasn’t able to use that voice as a member of the government.
Occasionally we would head out for a drink in Caerphilly town – where, more often than not, we would awkwardly be spotted by a Plaid Cymru councillor. These usually ended up with said Plaid Cymru representative joining us – despite Hefin’s previous comments describing the local group as “mad as a box of frogs”.
My excuse was that I was doing my job and getting the gossip – and that was partly true – but I just really enjoyed Hefin’s company and the opportunity to explore his political beliefs – some of which we didn’t always share – and to listen to his ideas.
What was the Welsh Government’s loss was Caerphilly’s gain. Not many can say they had such an impact on others’ lives, but Hefin certainly did.
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