Blackdown House, East Devon District Council s Honiton headquarters. Picture: Dan WIlkins
- Credit: Archant
Not since Brenda from Bristol said “Not another one” about the snap election called in 2017 has a previously unknown figure in British political life become such an overnight sensation. “You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver, none whatsoever,” snarled the chair of Hemsworth Parish Council. A few more similar snipes later and Jackie Weaver showed she really did, ejecting him from the Zoom meeting altogether.
I could fill this entire newspaper with the similar behaviour I have seen from men in our own local councils. Droning, arrogant, sexist, discourteous, oppressive, and that’s just for starters. Concerned people seeing this stuff on councils around here was what brought the first members of the East Devon Alliance of Independents (EDA) together back in 2013.
Jackie Weaver’s Attack on Democracy
Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons
You’ve all seen the video by now, I’m sure.[1] A Handforth parish council meeting descends into chaos, with snickers and interruptions, before coming to a climax as the Chair and Vice-Chair are thrown out of the meeting. At the centre of it all is Jackie Weaver, host of the Zoom meeting and now widely believed to be the hero of the story. Twitter for the last few days has been abuzz with people ecstatically giggling at the way she dealt with supposedly ‘disruptive’ councillors. Op-eds in major newspapers have praised her for “standing [her] ground with pompous and aggressive men’.[2] She has even been acclaimed as a “feminist icon”: she might one day become Dame Jackie.[3]
Jackie Weaver, The Woman Who Ran The World’s Most Chaotic Zoom Call, Is The Internet’s New Hero
Sorry but hearing a man tell Jackie Weaver she has no authority, then watching her immediately boot him off the Zoom call is ART.
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Over the weekend, you likely saw Jackie Weaver trending and for Australians watching the drama unfold, it was truly a confusing time.
This is because the viral Jackie Weaver is not the beloved Aussie actress, but rather a random savage British woman of the same name, who was busy kicking people off a local council Zoom meeting like it was nobody’s business.