Are your Zoom meetings ever like this? Parish Council meeting descends into chaos

[chomalungma]

There is some awful behaviour on here.

It breaks down badly at 4 minutes.

Yeah some of the things said seem funny but really it’s bullying and so scary that there are so many people like this in local politics up and down the country.

@Chocolino it is highly unlikely the parish council is responsible for sorting potholes. That usually rests at city/county level.

I'm in the "all hail Jackie Weaver" camp!

So glad that SHE was the host of the meeting so she could shove the abusive bastards onto the naughty step, rather than allow them to continue their abuse of her.

The rest of them seemed quite reasonable but they need to learn better meeting etiquette and not talk over each other so that bits of sentences are missed.

We do Zoom meetings for our PTA-equivalent in Australia, but we are told unequivocally that they may NOT be recorded. Although they never devolve into this kind of mayhem, I guess this would be the reason why!

However, an obstructive chair is a nightmare to deal with so good for Jackie in getting rid of him. One of our local schools had a similar problem and other parents pretty much had to stage a coup to get the whole executive out because they were guilty of gross misconduct, and, it turns out, misappropriation of funds.

I have to attend a lot of parish council meetings in different places for work and there is a lot that resonates.

Usually though it is technical issues not bullying!

Fortunately parish councils have very little meaningful authority.

I predict Jackie will be the next Captain Tom and the nation will be elevating her to a peerage.

Jesus christ, well that's crushed any dreams I had of ever moving to a small village, becoming middle class and living happily ever after.

I'll stick to the council estate where squabbles are settled by screeching at each other in the street. Far more honest and a more level playing field

[quote Dastardlythefriendlymutt]@banivani clerk is pronounced as "clark" so it is a clerk as you are saying.[/quote]
Thank you, they kept spelling it differently in comments etc. and I got confused in the end thinking I'd missed something (is there a new title I don't know about? I've only ever heard of clerks???).

I'm going to have to google these terms ... I'm in Sweden and we have similar rules saying that members of a body can call a meeting under certain circumstances but as an employed official I would have no standing to lead the meeting or anything so this is new to me. And raises the niggling question that perhaps we haven't made provisions for what to do if the chair, vice chairs etc are the problem and refuse to lead like civilised people ... I think we'd fall back on a general rule that the oldest takes over (alderman rules). Must check.

Is a parish council connected to the church?

@Chocolino it is highly unlikely the parish council is responsible for sorting potholes. That usually rests at city/county level.

Yes, I know. However, this is also how our local council acts and they responsible for 45,000 people. They argue and bicker openly in the local newspaper.

Jackie (Britney) is brilliant but I made the mistake of reading the Daily Mail and of course the misogynistic creeps in the comments section are outraged that she stood up to the male bullies.

It would put people off wanting to be elected to parish council. I mean folks don’t want to do it at the best of times, which is why this kind of people get elected to do it, who quite frankly shouldn’t be allowed due to sheer incompetency.

On watching that abusive mess who the heck in their right mind would want to be part of something like that.

It was all”I’m in charge” “no I’m in charge” he’s in charge not uou” “you’re not in charge” . Basically a bunch of fools fighting for who is in charge and swinging their dicks around.

@Judashascomeintosomemoney

(also, the fact I’ve just sat and watched 18 mins of the Handforth parish council meeting is a clear sign that lockdown has gone on too long)

Me too!

Although I was on a Standards Committee for a while and the Parish Councillors were the worst offenders. It really was one of the most tedious voluntary positions I have ever done.

Having seen a recording of appalling behaviour in my local parish council Zoom meeting, this was strangely familiar. Bullying of the only female present by pompous old men who had been on the council for years and thought they knew everything and a woman had no right to speak or be there. The only good thing about it is that the parish residents have now seen what the councillors are like and will hopefully elect better people... I think all parish council meetings should be recorded and made available to the parish residents so they can see what their councillors are actually like.

Jackie Weaver is awesome.

Alan the vice chair appears to be a horrible abusive bully and is quite scary.

The first vile man who gets kicked out is foul. DH sent the whole vid to me as it is FIL all over 😄

It was appalling behaviour by the chair and vice chair, straightforward attempt at bullying. Fortunately Jackie is made of stern stuff but having worked with a lot of councillors, they really are a law unto themselves whether at Parish or Local authority level. Some of them behave in ways that would never be tolerated in a million years in a normal workplace.

Are these meetings recorded usually? If not, going forward they should be whether in person or virtually to hold councillors to account on their conduct. The video is quite shocking, I can’t believe the conduct of the so called chair.
Interestingly on the wilmslow website they are saying complaints have been made to cheshire east council about the parish council off the back of this video. Cheshire east council is notorious for having issues shall we say

@52andblue

I've been in similarly aggressive meetings. It can be very stressful. All meetings should be recorded imo with a proper system of redress when aggressive bullying occurs.

I think so too, all of them unless confidential information is likely to be disclosed. I have a relative involved in planing decisions and some of the parish councillors set up a blog where they bullied and harassed online because they did not agree with a decision. It went on for about a year.

I can't find this funny either. Much as I want to.

It makes my blood run cold at how much misogyny and bullying are clearly there is in (local) politics. And how much incompetence - because the most twattish on this video are also, quite clearly, absolute bloody idiots.

One of the problems is that the monitoring officers powers were reduced and there is now very little that can be done about badly behaved Councillors.

I don't think anyone is finding the aggression and bullying funny. It's just the whole Zoomness of it all. People not muting their mics, people not understanding how the tech works, people mishearing each other etc.

Actually, I'm probably wrong, some people probably do find the aggression funny. I didn't. I just thought, "We've all been Jackie Weaver at some point".

“It was all”I’m in charge” “no I’m in charge” he’s in charge not uou” “you’re not in charge” . Basically a bunch of fools fighting for who is in charge and swinging their dicks around.”

Reminded me of my child’s class WhatsApp group. I read the messages to keep an eye on things, but the whole thing was just about who was in charge and who had the power to remove who. But then, they are children...

I just described this to my husband who deals a lot with Parish councils. He didn’t seem surprised. He said you would believe the wilful obtuseness that goes on at some these meetings.

That was the single most British thing I've seen in a very long time

@thetinselbadge

I didn't think it was funny.

I see men like this all the time as a more junior member of staff. They're everywhere.

Yes, bullies whose behaviour is steeped in misogyny.

Jackie Weaver. What a legend. I hope I can be like her in meetings. She’s made me want to join the parish council. Ours is exactly like that. They are constantly stropping on Facebook. They love a good flounce.

@spongedog

I have dealt with complaints against elected members for a long time....
Part of the reason the national Standards Board for England (which dealt with the really bad cases against Cllrs) was disbanded, was that 80% of their cases were from Parish Councils. So a lot of money was wasted trying to referee nonsense like this.
They localised disciplinary matters in the main- I had to write the local policy- which unfortunately meant that serious matters didn't get the attention they deserve.

I haven't dared watch the video, can't deal with the flashbacks