Handforth Parish Council Meeting

About

The Handforth Parish Council Meeting refers to a viral video that was shared on social media on February 4th, 2021, which features a meeting of councilors of Handforth Parish Council, the parish authority in the town of Handforth, England on the video conferencing platform, Zoom. The events of the meeting, and particularly the actions of Clerk Jackie Weaver, were later satirized on social media in numerous memes.

Origin

On December 10th, 2020, the Handforth Parish Council met at 7:30 PM to discuss the environmental and planning progress on the committee. The meeting began with animosity as councilor Jackie Weaver had kicked the chairman, Brian Tolvin out of a previous meeting at 7 PM.^[1] Over the course of the meeting, Tolvin attempts to reiterate the various delegations of the council before Weaver kicks him out a second time and attempts to elect a new chairman. A portion of the meeting was posted to YouTube on February 4th, 2021 by YouTuber ma0sm, gaining over 1.4 million views (shown below).

Spread

After the video was posted, it quickly went viral on social media, as users quoted various moments from it and made jokes. Notable moments include "READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEM!", said by the Vice Chairman, labeled "Aled's iPad," after Weaver kicked out Tolver, and Weaver changing her name to "Britney Spears" after someone pointed out that Tolvin had changed his name to add "Clerk" without being elected to the position. She said, "There is no way of stopping him from calling himself clerk. Please refer to me as Britney Spears from now on." The meeting caused "Jackie Weaver" to trend on Twitter^[2] that day. Users made jokes celebrating Weaver for remaining unflappable during the meeting. For example, user @abi_victoriab^[3] wrote, "The best part of this saga is Jackie Weaver’s face after she kicks him out. Our queen is absolutely unbothered, she did wht she had to do." User @Just_RichardB^[4] posted a Milk Edinburgh edit about the meeting, gaining over 140 retweets and 1,700 likes (shown below, right).

Jackie Weaver later appeared on BBC's Woman Hour after the video went viral (shown below).

She was also interviewed by Sky News (shown below). She explained that other members of the council had been trying to hold a meeting for months and the chairman had refused, and when he continued to be belligerent during the proceedings, she did what she felt she had to to have the meeting take place.

Memes about the event were covered by The Tab^[1] and ebaumsworld.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References