Hefin David

He earned a BScEcon degree in Economics and Politics, and an MScEcon degree in European Policy, both from Cardiff University, followed by a PGCE from the University of Wales, Newport (now the University of South Wales) and a PhD from the University Of Gloucestershire. He was a senior lecturer at the University of Wales, Newport and later at Cardiff Metropolitan University.[1]

Until May 2017 he was a councillor for ward of St Cattwg on Caerphilly County Borough Council. During the 2012- 2017 term, he was chair of a number of committees including Policy and Resources Scrutiny.[2]

David was elected to the Assembly seat for Caerphilly in 2016, securing 35.3% of the vote and a majority of 1,575 over second-placed Plaid Cymru.[3]

In September 2019 David was found to have breached Welsh Assembly standards of conduct after making remarks on Twitter. David re-tweeted a message by a constituent that the Welsh football team "has been hijacked" by the Welsh independence movement,[4] and that "politics and sport should not be linked." The constituent received an opposing reply from a Plaid Cymru member, to which David replied by calling the Plaid user an "utter knob" and a "coc oen".[4]

The Assembly’s standards commissioner Sir Roderick Evans found the language was "abusive". David disagreed with the commissioner's categorisation, instead describing the remarks as "insulting". He further argued his response was affected by the "huge amount of abuse on Twitter" received by politicians.[4] David chose to formally apologise for the incident, in the process avoiding a formal reprimand in the chamber.[4]

The issue came at the same time as similar disputes about the language used by fellow AM Leanne Wood which were aimed at a controversial Welsh blogger, words which Wood chose not to apologise for.[4] The David and Wood incidents have raised wider questions about standards in the Assembly and how they manage social media communications by members.