There is a certain hilarity in the news that Neil Kinnock’s son, Stephen, is bidding to become Labour’s candidate in the safe seat of Aberavon in South Wales.

He certainly will be a high-profile MP if he wins through, given his father’s fame and his wife, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who just happens to be the Danish Prime Minister and who triggered a global sensation with her ‘selfie’ with David Cameron and Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.

When one thinks of the terrible monstering poor Neil got from the right-wing press during his years as Labour leader one can only marvel at the boyo’s determination to prove himself.

Already, the darts are being sharpened.

One member of the local party told The Times recently: “If he stood in somewhere like Islington he would be a dead cert, but it’s very different here.

“He’s fluent in five languages but he doesn’t speak Welsh.”

Oh dear! Strangely enough, I can’t remember whether Neil could speak Welsh or not and I don’t ever remember it being an issue for him during his tenure as Labour leader but bizarrely it already seems to be a potential banana skin for his son.

It all adds to a picture of someone being parachuted in and that is often a recipe for disaster, as I have discovered while reporting these matters over the years.

Local associations rightly guard their turf ferociously and although they can be welcoming to newcomers they can be equally dismissive in despatching them.

And there is the question of whether his father’s position in the party will help or hinder him.

The Kinnocks are not altogether fondly remembered in this part and are accused of “cashing in” with political careers in Europe rather than returning to Wales.

Former steel worker Jack Cole, 78, told The Times: “They’ve never been seen again.”

As for Stephen’s attempt to come across as a ‘man of the people’ it all seems faintly risible.

“I’ve come from a background which has been as tough and as working class as any” he says. Really?

The contrast between the only working class candidate in the race, Mark Fisher, a former hospital porter and Stephen, who as a Cambridge graduate has been earning over £110,000 a year as head of Europe and Central Asia for the World Economic Forum, could not be greater.

It will be fascinating to see who wins the ballot, the results of which are due to be announced later today.

The front-runner is a lawyer called Jeremy Miles but Kinnock’s charge is a strong one and there is also Gavin Fishguard, a 28-year-old former staffer for Harriet Harman to consider.

But what is interesting to me is that people like Stephen are prepared to put themselves through a form of media hell having seen at first-hand the firestorm that engulfed his father.

He says he has been dealing with criticism since he was a teenager and can deal with it.

He has already had to deal with some seriously unpleasant sexual innuendo courtesy of a Swedish tabloid and there can be no doubt it would all get a fresh raking over should he triumph today.

I am old enough to remember the infamous Sun headline from the 1992 election: ”If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights” along with Neil’s head framed comically inside a lightbulb.

And that was just the culmination of a decade’s worth of often highly personal and wounding attacks which basically boiled down to: “We are not prepared to allow a ginger Welsh windbag rule over us.”

Part of the reason why Labour mounted such an aggressive media campaign when Tony Blair emerged as a serious Prime Ministerial candidate was the determination by Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson and others not to allow him to be destroyed by a media avalanche.

Indeed, so obsessed with the right-wing media did Labour become, that even when ensconced in Parliament with an overwhelming majority the control exerted over MPs to stay on message and the desire to keep the media reined in was truly formidable.

Watch out, Stephen!