Parish council meeting descends into Zoom chaos

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-55946252

A must watch lockdown classic.

[video="youtube;lgGmYeAm0jk"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgGmYeAm0jk&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=StevenMorgan[/video]

Reply 1

jackmarshal757

The joys of local government

Reply 2

Fullofsurprises

I find it all a bit sad - can't they behave like normal people?? There's clearly a long running faction fight going on. Pretty funny in places watching it as an outsider, but it also brings home how difficult it is to deal with difficult things on Zoom when people are not prepared to listen or compromise.

Reply 3

caravaggio2

This lead our local 6pm news on the telly box, in a piece about 7 minutes long. Must be a very quiet news day.

Reply 4

Vertigo_descent

Love how it opens with an f-bomb. Plus the whole "Julie's I pad"

Reply 5

UnclePete

Original post by DiddyDec

Politics of the parish pump at their finest....

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 6

UnclePete

Original post by DiddyDec

And politicians of the parish pump at their finest....get a life folks!

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 7

Napp

This was beautiful <3

Reply 8

fallen_acorns

Really great example of why its important to present yourself properly.

By the rules it seems like this lady was a bit over-presumptuous in her approach, and that she was there without the technical authority to take charge..

But none of that matters when you have a bunch of screaming/tantrum old men having a hissy fit.

--

The glorification of her, and the idea that this is a sexist issue annoys me though. She was acting in-properly, in a very proper manner, and some of male councillors were making valid points in a very very in-propper manner. Its very easy to invent a narrative around it, or to see her as a hero - but imagine if you were one of the councillors, and you were kicked out of a meeting by someone who had no authority to remove you from there. even if your conduct wasn't appropriate, You probably wouldn't think she's a hero.

Also, in my experience of meetings, men are just as likely if not more likely to get annoyed and shout at other men, then women - so I don't buy the sexist point of view here. Replace the woman with a man, and they are likely still furious/pissed off.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 9

fallen_acorns

If anyone is interested in the detail, here is a long post about the rules, and the comments go even further into detail:

https://davidallengreen.com/2021/02/did-jackie-weaver-have-the-authority-the-law-and-policy-of-that-handforth-parish-council-meeting/

It seems like the meeting was justified, but she shouldn't have had the ability to remove people etc. even if they deserved it

Reply 10

Fullofsurprises

Original post by fallen_acorns

She strikes me as quite rude actually, but I think this is one of those clips where there is a huge backstory we know nothing about, so any judgements will be superficial.

Even though she was probably being abrupt and acting improperly, the bit where she dumped the guy off for being annoying was very funny. It's comic how much control the host has on a Zoom where they haven't shared control.

Reply 11

fallen_acorns

Original post by Fullofsurprises

Yes - slowly more details are coming out and the whole history behind it just seems like a mess. People trying to get each other kicked out of the council etc.

I was just surprised to see the reaction. I watched the video and thought that it looked like a room of idiots in different ways, some more some less etc. And i presumed that they would all go down in the same group condemnation.

I didn't expect to see one being held up as a national hero/icon, with Tshirts about her, celebrities fawning over her etc. That just took me by surprise cosnidering that it does seem like she acted out of line with her official capacity.

Reply 12

Fullofsurprises

Handforth Parish Council Environmental Subcommittee The Musical - out now.
https://twitter.com/scatatkins/status/1357822373962145792

Reply 13

UnclePete

Original post by fallen_acorns

I've been involved in local and county council meetings- mainly around ten years ago when we were trying to mitigate against some of the worst council funded bus service cuts proposed where I live and yes, well, how can we say, they did kinda get rather heated!

My experience and dealings with both local and county councillors is that they are well meaning folk, doing what they consider best at sometimes a thankless task with more often than not limited resource and funding, and as the saying goes you can please some of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of them all the time.

Unfortunately some councillors are apt to get extremely partisan to the exclusion of the bigger picture, and let what happens at these meetings take their life over- especially if it's become the main part of it such as if they are retired with no other interests or family outlets.

I remember talking to my doctor who herself had been a councillor, saying one of the reasons she stood down was that all would be fine as long as you agreed on everything with your own party, but the moment you agreed with the opposition even if they had a good idea, you were no longer 'one of us'. One of the reasons I declined when approached if I would like to be a councillor.