UKH

Apologies if this has been posted before . Just heard it referenced on R4 and had a quick listen . It it’s on you tube and is a slice of real life monty python . Made me late .

I was somewhat unimpressed that the cricket was on this morning, disturbing my usual morning routine of watching various sitcoms on channel 4.  

Then I found the video you refer to.  Far better than a sitcom.  

I'm hooked.  Jackie Weaver is Brittany Spears, and it appears she does have the authority.  

Highlights here.

youtube.com/watch?v=lgGmYeAm0jk&

Be aware it starts with NSFW language (not what I expect from a parish council) 

Just needed Jim from Vicar of Dibley 

No NO NO NO NO NO NO No NO 

Yes

On Womans hour now.

That's painful, there's only so much I could watch.

Brought back some painful memories of certain BMC meetings I had to endure. I really hope there are much fewer disruptive or scheming sticklers in those meetings nowadays.

There's a few there who could do with a good dose of Rabbie Burns:

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

Yes, excruciating wasn't it?

Wishfull thinking , me thinks .

Funniest thing I've seen in ages.

"You have no authority here Jackie Weaver" 

LOL, some nasty short tempers and big egos there. Reminds me of my allotment association meetings, basically a blood sport!

The disembodied Golumesque mutterings and general Zoom weirdness are just brilliant

jk

Is it real?  When I heard extracts I assumed it was an uncomfortable new comedy about local government.  I only call in for our parish council meetings when there's a planning application I'm interested in but so far they haven't been as exciting as this!   

It’s real alright. Their details are up there on the council website. My partner emailed Councillor Moore offering her support and to request the zoom link to the next meeting. I imagine the answer will be no!

Sometimes really life is more ridiculous than comedy.  

Just heard someone on the radio saying that if you think exchanges in the House of Commons are vicious you should try attending parish council meetings!! 

Here's the meeting where they try to claim the other meeting was illegal. 

youtube.com/watch?v=fI6Vq67n5hs&

She'd have saved the day if she'd replied "You will respect my authoritah," in a Cartman voice.

Dear God, imagine having some of them for neighbours. This must be what happens when everyone is too genteel to just tell someone to f-ck off.

Thought this was going to be about the Australian movie actress


Anyway the whole thing seems very Stoneybridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_1M6s5ZbtE&fbclid=IwAR3JDSOX9nYIujy3wl...

The meeting started with a f ck off?

From the sounds of things this isn't a million miles away from recent BMC meetings?

This is more insane than the one that has gone viral. Less shouting and scoffing but a whole lot more bullying, cronyism and dodgy decision making.

After all that did they approve a new bench by the bowling green?

It appears that the parish council has been split 4 to 3 for some time.  

The chair and his mates had a 4th person on side.  From what I can make out this 4th person hasn’t attenaded meetings for 6 months and therefore a vacancy arose. There haven’t been many meetings for some reason.

It seems the chair decided that it didn’t matter and told the clerk there wasn’t a vacancy.  The clerk was advised by East Cheshire that there is a vacancy and to not do the election would be illegal.  The chair appears to have attempted to sack or suspend the clerk for refusing to do something illegal.  This was done incorrectly by a subcommittee of the chair and his mates.  

Jackie Weaver seems to have been put in to support the parish council as they weren’t having meetings. 

So from my point of view it very much looks like a man who acted illegally and undemocratically to attempt to sack a clerk for refusing to break the law is now complaining that it’s undemocratic to expect him not to yell at people in meetings or be removed.  

It also appears he hasn’t been sharing agendas and other important information with some of the parish council and that he deliberately delays anything that people try to do for the people who live there. 

They were trying to organise £5000 for the local food bank amongst all the nonsense.  

It would be funnier if it wasn't a metaphor for the semi-dyfunctional Britain we now seem to be living in.

I managed 5 minutes but it was simultaneously funny and depressing at the same time. Some bullying arseholes on there.

And what is it with the fact that anyone over 50 seems unable to be self-aware on video conference? You can see a massive real-time image of yourself on Zoom FFS. Too close, pointing up their nose, badly lit and no understanding that talking over people just disintegrates into chaos.

Aye, we watched that one last night too! Absolute gold from a comedy perspective, but an absolute shambles for the people actually living in the parish. Clearly there are some trying to do some useful work there and it must be totally infuriating and demoralising for them to be outnumbered by such ocean-going tools. 

it's a bit like a thread here being played by live actors

YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY HERE WERCAT!

I'm convinced that (ex) vice chairman is Ronnie Pickering! If he challenged Jackie Weaver to a bare knuckle fight that would clinch it.

I wonder when the next elections to the Parish council are.

Would be quite interesting to hear some of the threads here acted out as a radio play by distinguished actors...

who would be played by whom?

it could be an audio installation project

You could have a Covid Midsomer murder - all the action on Zoom,  the buildup of parochial nastiness, the murder and then the police investigation and arrest, all on screen

Brilliant. Proper cheered me up that. “YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY JACKIE WEAVER”

Does he say ´here Jackie Weaver’ or (as I suspect) ‘Herr Jackie Weaver’.  This would be disappointing, grammatically speaking.

"the Greater Good..."

I thought the best bit was the muttered "f*ck off" right at the start - set the scene perfectly.

As an ex-parish councillor (about 30 years ago, elected by the younger end of the village!) This is exactly what it was like. We got a precept from the council tax, to use for the good of the village. There were a few 'older' councillors who wanted to rule in their own little group (which were also the elder leaders of a powerful local union). They would often call a meeting, not notify anyone apart from their small group, not publish an agenda and then tell the village what the 'parish council' had decided. It really was a farce. I lasted for about 3 years, but moved out of the area and gave up my seat. This video could easily have been one of our meetings!

It's good to see that technology isn't helping these little power hungry cliques.  

My short experience of a few years was the opposite in the older members. They welcomed new outside blood and a couple of the older ones were superb sources of knowledge of the area which they applied well to the Parish. I remember a few short interesting conversations about spellings of road names. We just respected their historical knowledge and moved on very quickly to more interesting things. Looks like  I was lucky and had good chairpersons. 

I don’t think it’s necessarily age, it’s the power hungry, fingers in all the pies control freaks.  In this particular case it seems especially toxic.

In reply to neilh:

I really didn't like the way he spoke to the person off camera.  

She was on "The Last Leg" last night. Seemed to be a good sort...

This been posted yet?

youtube.com/watch?v=lgGmYeAm0jk&

It has.  I'm off work with nothing better to do.  This whole saga kept me amused for ages.  

It actually favoured Jackie. Being able to simply switch people off is a lot easier than trying to physically eject them from a meeting.

Very much so.  Quite a number of women elsewhere have commented that the behaviour would have been very intimidating face to face.  

I've always thought I have a very strong sense of humour, but I didn't find it at all funny. I'm prepared to be patronised and have someone explain to me how the vile behaviour of these male councillors was in any way amusing.

Christ on a bike.  This is why we should get rid of parishes.

The behaviour was not funny.  The fact that they were dealt was.  The toilet flushing, the swearing, the phone call and the general computer issues were funny for anyone who has been in an online meeting.  The Britany Spears comment was just hilarious.  

I must admit that I didn't get the Britney Spears thing. Otherwise it was literally laugh out loud funny on so many levels.

The chairman who had previously suspended the parish clerk (illegally) signed in on his zoom as parish clerk, the job that Jackie had been parachuted in to do.  He unilaterally decided that he wanted to be parish clerk so he could keep control.  As she said he can call himself whatever he likes, it doesn’t make it true.  Hence the Britany Spears thing.  

Should we ever get back to real life school, next kid that tells me an obvious lie is getting the “you can refer to me as Britany Spears” line.  

Used to work for a Housing Association with a few leasehold properties in Handforth and they were renowned as the most stuck-up, Hyancinth Bucket-ish residents amongst a portfolio of 2000+. We had a running gag that whenever we were on the phone confirming their address, we'd always ask "Is that Handforth in Stockport?" and half the time they'd go absolutely bananas at the suggestion. So obviously we just kept doing it.

A combination of laughing at them get their comeuppance, the ridiculous seriousness with which they take their very minor offices, the comical inability to use a computer, the studied unflustered competence of the council trouble-shooter.

All the best meetings do, I'm going to start our AGM off with the same this year, if we ever get down the pub again!!

I imagine if all UKC users had a massive zoom meeting it would be similar! You have no authority here Birdy num num*
 

*Any regular would do 🤣

I felt similar. There was the odd funny moment, and thankfully Ms Weaver seems to have come out of it well, but it was like a 'polite' version of the Jeremy Kyle show, albeit with some reasonable people trying to be heard above an unpleasant and tedious rabble. A human zoo, I cannot help but feel slightly dirty after watching things like this.

", the studied unflustered competence of the council trouble-shooter." . This .

i can see why some people don't find this at all funny . In many ways the fact that this nasty bullying still goes on is awful and not to be laughed out . I ve not seen any discussion of this but it seems to me that jacky was sent to deal with this pair and their little gang and did so calmly and efficiently . I'm a bit concerned that it sounds like the BMC should be employing her to sort their meetings out .

Out of curiosity for the answer, I just asked our Alexa "who is Jackie Weaver?"

....and the reply was "Do you mean Britney Spears?" hahaha. Alexa has a better sense of humour than me!

Wrong link sorry 

youtube.com/watch?v=TzfaZqmImLU& 

Fabulous 

Ha ha, that's wonderful!

Ooh..  I just realised it's Flo & Joan and disappeared down a youtube hole.  They've done some cracking stuff since those bank adverts on the telly..

What I found funny was the complete lack of self awareness from the pompous idiots that were trying to bully a professional that was sent in from above to troubleshoot their mess. She was supremely efficient in dispatching them.

Have you found "if I could change my body"? The highlight of lockdown for me!

A Troubling thing she did say in an interview was that she might not have been able to be so forthright in a face to face setting as angry males can be physically intimidating. 

Having been involved in plenty of round table meetings it needs a strong chairperson to run things and keep the topic on course, however the wrong dominant person just defeats the object of having meetings, with quite voices being ignored and a small group echoing the "alpha"* of the meeting.

* An outdated 80's concept that seems to be a poor excuse for boorish behaviour and remarkably hard to shift and may well explain some countries poor response to Covid.

Yes.

And we could have skipped a few Covid threads on here by just posting a link to the 'Lockdown Dance'.  (From the middle of May last year but still depressingly relevant.)
youtube.com/watch?v=0E50ZV5d5fs&

I guess you probably already know Dillie Keane (on her own and as a member of Fascinating Aida)?

Of course. For anyone who hasn't heard this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0na2Y_74_mk&ab_channel=DillieKeane