The internet watched in disbelief as an extraordinary local council meeting descended into chaos in front of their eyes.
Clips from the Handforth Parish Council meeting, which were uploaded to Twitter yesterday, saw councillors swearing and being booted off a Zoom call.
The meeting, which took place on December 10 at 7.30pm, was the second time chairperson Brian Tolver had been removed from a meeting.
He had already been evicted from the earlier 7pm Planning and Environment Committee.
The second meeting began with an unseen councillor mumbling, ‘F**k off’ under their breath.
According to the council meeting minutes, Mr Tolver had refused to recognise the legitimacy of both meetings.
He told meeting clerk Jackie Weaver, from the Cheshire Association of Local Councils, to ‘stop talking’ and ‘you have no authority here’.
In response, Ms Weaver removed Mr Tolver from the Zoom call and placed him in a virtual waiting room.
Following Mr Tolver’s eviction, vice-chairperson Aled Brewerton yelled at Ms Weaver to ‘read the standing orders’.
There was also confusion over Mr Tolver’s Zoom username, in which he had labelled himself the ‘clerk’.
Ms Weaver said: ‘The chairman simply declared himself “clerk” and notified everybody of the case.
‘There is no way of stopping him from calling himself clerk. Please refer to me as Britney Spears from now on.’
Fellow councillor Susan Moore called for civility – but the meeting erupted into semi-hysterical laughter and two further councillors, Mr Brewerton and Barry Burkill, were also removed from the meeting.
Those remaining voted to not allow the three men back into the meeting, with councillor Cynthia Samson likening one to a ‘laughing hyena’.
Ms Moore then proceeded the meeting in the position of chairperson.
Jackie Weaver in particular appears to have become an unlikely internet sensation overnight, with her name trending on Twitter alongside hashtags such as ‘#JusticeForJackie.
Even celebrities shared and commented on the clip online.
Richard Osman tweeted: ‘Am busily writing Jackie Weaver into the next Thursday Murder Club novel.’
Presenter Steph McGovern said: ‘But what happens next???’
Handforth is a town in Cheshire with a population of just over 6,000 people.
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