Jackie Weaver: Bizarre Handforth Parish town council meeting goes viral
A bizarre council meeting has gone viral after councillors descended into a bitter fight and one woman began kicking others off the call.
A bizarre town council Zoom meeting has gone viral after councillors descended into a bitter fight, and one woman began kicking others off the call.
The Handforth Parish Council meeting has been viewed more 1.8 million times on Twitter — a longer version on YouTube has attracted more than 15,000 views.
The footage from December 10 was originally shared online by the Cheshire Council, but has since become an online hit, with thousands of people joking about one of the councillors, Jackie Weaver, who appeared to be booting councillors from the meeting for being rude.
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“Can we be assured that we won’t be thrown out of the meeting like we were last time,” the Council’s Chair, Brian Tolver, asked at the beginning of the meeting. He added that he was “thrown out” last time.
Mr Tolver had previously been removed from a 7pm Planning and Environment Committee, the Independent reports.
“As long as we have reasonable behaviour from everyone, no one would be excluded from the meeting,” Ms Weaver said.
Mr Tolver and Ms Weaver then began a heated debate over her conduct — but were continually interrupted by other councillors — as their phones rang and they muttered in the background.
Ms Weaver then interrupted the meeting, telling Mr Tolver: “If you disrupt this meeting I’ll have to remove you from it”.
“It’s only the chairman who can remove people from a meeting,” Mr Tolver fired back. “You have no authority here Jackie Weaver. No authority at all.”
He was then promptly kicked out of the meeting by Ms Weaver.
âYOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY HERE, JACKIE WEAVER!!â pic.twitter.com/Jvy17pltzw
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) February 5, 2021
"You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver! No authority at all!" is going to be my new refrain whenever anyone tells me what to do
— Skylar Baker-Jordan (@SkylarJordan) February 5, 2021
I will not sleep tonight until I have gone through every Jackie Weaver related tweet on the internet #jackieweaverhastheauthority https://t.co/ngeP45lZLJ
— Sue Perkins ð (@sueperkins) February 5, 2021
She then began calling on the councillors to elect a new chair.
The vice-chair then became outraged, announcing he was in charge, and telling Jackie Weaver to “read the standing orders”.
Other councillors, including Barry Burkill, laughed at Ms Weaver and accused her of not knowing what she was talking about.
Mr Burkill and other councillors who’d been laughing were then removed.
The councillors who hadn’t been removed by Ms Weaver then voted for a new Chairman — John Smith, who welcomed Ms Weaver to the area.
“My first point is to apologise to Jackie. Welcome to Handforth,” Mr Smith said.
“It was a very good example of bullying in Cheshire east and the environs.”
The clip has caused a viral sensation, and Jackie Weaver was trending on Twitter throughout the day.