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.

Take Aled bloke's tone of voice, the way shrieks at Jackie then calls the man he's with an "old fool" makes my blood run cold. He's the epitome of an abusive man.

I got the impression that it was son and father talking to off-screen mother. I think Aled Jr is calling his mum an old fool.

But there are men (and occasionally women) all over the country at Parish council meetings just like this.

And no, they won't be shamed. Their behaviour is ingrained.

This is just how it used to be at community council meetings in the small village I used to live in.

I imagine it's quite representative. Old men with too much time on their hands, worrying about the meeting rules then actual business.

Flos 💐

I think many of us have experienced this.

And I think that's part of why it's gone viral.

The poster who said it should be shown as a training video has a point.

One of the things it demonstrates is bullying - particularly a kind of bullying that is seen in men.

The Chair is loud, verbally aggressive, convinced he's right.

Often, in those situations, people will mistake all those behaviours for being right ('he's so convinced! So angry! He must be correct!') and side with him. And, of course, some people will side with someone like that just because they don't want to be on the receiving end/want an easy life.

And it's so frustrating because if you're on the receiving end, you can see very clearly it's bullying, with bullying, bizarrely, standing in for any kind of truthfulness or fact-based decision-making.

What gives this incident a narrative arc is that the men doing this don't win and get their comeuppance.

But, yes, I think we've all been there.

I think Aled Jr is calling his mum an old fool.
Is he the one who did the Exorcist impression?

These men are abusive cocks, I don't find it very funny either

To be fair, there are some pretty obnoxious women on my pc. Once there was a “my qualifications are better than yours” argument over who was going to write the parish news sheet.

it's a private argument and it's horrible and embarrassing

Yes it's horrible and embarrassing but no it isn't a private argument. It is a public meeting.

I would love to be a fly on the wall atvthe next meeting!

Honestly, more people - particularly women - need to be empowered to go into politics.

And we need to change the culture. The culture puts off the people we need to join in.

There are organisations working to change things.

I said it up thread but, please, take from this thd lesson that you could do better than this.

Yes it's horrible and embarrassing but no it isn't a private argument. It is a public meeting.

Oh ok, I admit I don't know much about how parish council meetings work, but does that mean anyone who wanted could ask to join the meeting, or the zoom meeting? Or that it was broadcast publically / made available to all the people it represented?

Pure gold - Jackie is a hero.

And yy to the poster that said it reminded them of PTA meetings - my God, the acrimony and bullying!

Ugh, the Women's Hour opener making it just about the stress of lockdown for everyone. Such a great opportunity to turn the Karen stereotype on its head and show that women have to learn to take no shits, because men like this just take up SO much bloody space. Come on Jackie.... looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

I watched a lot of this last night. Like many upthread have said, it brought back horrible memories of being on a similar town council, particularly the men talking over the women and being incredibly patronising. Also evenings that seemed to last forever despite it only being two hours... lots of people who weren't used to efficient meeting management. A couple of years after I left the clerk ended up being bullied out, so it got worse.

It wasn't just one bad council either - I had to attend several of our parish council meetings a couple of years ago, relating to a planning matter. It was dire (and similar types of people). Lots of councillors who also didn't understand the planning framework - or put in the effort to understand it - despite putting forward the council's official response on planning matters. I agree with all those upthread who've said that a good clerk (go Jackie!) is priceless.

The problem is that it can attract some really awful types of people, with too much time on their hands, and it puts others (including me!) off. At least at work, if you have that kind of toxic environment, you can find allies, speak with HR and oust the bullies - unfortunately the electorate often doesn't attend council meetings so these people get elected year after year because "John's a good sort" and they have no idea what John is really like.

@napody

Ugh, the Women's Hour opener making it just about the stress of lockdown for everyone. Such a great opportunity to turn the Karen stereotype on its head and show that women have to learn to take no shits, because men like this just take up SO much bloody space. Come on Jackie.... looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Yes I was a bit disappointed by the opener too. Really hope the message improves when they speak to her.

Can I just put a note of caution on here. There is a much bigger back story here, this was the culmination of a number of events

Sadly this sort of behaviour is rife in this sector, and there are little to no sanctions available so the bullies get away with the behaviour time and time again

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@napody

Ugh, the Women's Hour opener making it just about the stress of lockdown for everyone. Such a great opportunity to turn the Karen stereotype on its head and show that women have to learn to take no shits, because men like this just take up SO much bloody space. Come on Jackie.... looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

I couldn’t believe that.This is a chance to highlight the bullying, sexism and irregularities in local politics all over the U.K. and the lead in is a bit of bantz about lockdown stress? How

If I hadn’t just name changed a few days ago I would be all over JackieWeaverStan as a username.

Jackie was great but I like Julies I pad the best. The phone call, the toilet flushing, I think her character added a lot of depth to the piece.

This is the same as every planning and council meeting in my area.

Plans get agreed for the most efregious of luxury housing plans, and skate parks and other youngster ammenities always declined.

The local council is a closed circle, of wealthy and powerful men AND women. The system will never change, as no one outside of the group will ever change.

One local business, questioned the £320 a month one councillor was claiming for work based broad band on their expenses.

The next day they had a visit from local planning and enforcment officers and shut them down on a few minor technicalities, one being an advertisign board on the pavement.

This video, as funny as it is, is also a true tragic reflection of the old guard running our local constiuencies.

Defeatest Maybe, but I never see this chaning.

Exactly Swiftjogger and Minecraftmadness... shall we tweet/email them quickly? Such a missed opportunity...

@Oswin

That vice chairs a right knob. So aggressive! I always imagined these types of thing to be gentle events. Like vicar of dibley.

Oh no!!! I was in the audience for something very like a parish council meeting where a new person was seated at the head table. The Chair introduced this person as a 'prominent defamation lawyer from London'.

The meeting did NOT get better.

I loved it. So many zoom cliches. Phone calls, toilets, mute, ‘fuck offs’ (not on mute). People generally talking all over each other and basic chaos. TBH I thought the majority of the attendees were all very patient considering it was such a blatantly unproductive use of their evenings!

What time is women’s hour - anyone know? (I don’t regularly listen)

Why did she call herself Britney Spears?