There is a lot of stuff in the UK press this week about a zoom meeting that got out of control and ended up on the web. It was for councillors on the planning committee in Handforth in Cheshire, councillors who fell out about who was in charge and what they should be discussing - and apparently the woman who was most voluble was not even a member of the committee which was having the virtual meeting.
I have an interest in this, as I once had a flat in Handforth and actually got involved with the local council. My pal and I had adjacent flats and another guy who worked with us lived down the road. We used to meet for a beer in the Railway pub (next to the station, as you might imagine). One time when we were there, there were some people talking about the Ratepayers Association and looking for people to help them with their canvassing to get someone from their association on the council. Seeing as we were ratepayers and working shifts - which gave us plenty of spare time, we agreed to get involved and spent some time either at meetings or delivering pamphlets and canvassing support on our estate.
The ratepayers actually already had a councillor and were looking to get this lady elected as well.
Anyway, came the day and somehow she failed to get in.
At the next meeting, there were all sort of rationales put forth, but then the chairman summed it up by saying, " It´s our fault as we were too complacent and didn´t put enough effort in - we were thinking that we could get one of Shenton´s pigs elected if they were on our ticket, but we were wrong".
Unfortunately, the unsuccessful lady candidate was present, and to try to cover his gaffe, he added "No offence meant to you Mrs Brown".
We nearly wet ourselves and shortly decided we were not really suited to local politics.
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