After Jackie Weaver Gate, What is the authority of local councils?
Watching Jackie Weavers shot to fame becoming a source of entertainment and becoming a meme with a series of sartorial tributes to a rather heated and unsettling zoom call for Weaver being accused she was without authority to convene a local council meeting after two members called for an election of a new chair of the debate with two members in attendance in fury claiming she had no authority to host and call for a new election claiming such meetings were against the law. The video surfaced online by procrastinating young Labour Party member who has been throughout lockdown enjoying watching sessions of local council meetings assuming a route into local politics in the future.
Seeing such conflict occurring at local parish and local council meetings not being a rarity in local politics Manchester Evening News reported that ‘tantrums tears and bitter accusations’ have occurred in some of the worse council meetings. Westminster politicians often talk about a kinder, gentler politics whether they deliver that in the chamber of the House of Commons I sadly think isn’t the case in such an adversarial archaic chamber the chamber is designed for heated debate and the theatre show which see loud jeering and cheering talking down their opposition or cheering on their minister political discourse as a spectator sport this doesn’t set the standards highly for local politics which is and can be a launchpad to national politics. The Chief Executive the association of local councils in Cheshire was to be a stand in clerk for the meeting what Weaver witnessed is a barrier to some to engage in local democracy and stand to represent their ward at in council meetings. The Manchester Evening News wrote of series of misconduct at local council meetings one overheard being referred to as a bitch. Its rather concerning that the harassment of Weaver the aggression she received became a spectacle of such entertainment. But something that calls for scrutiny and investigation by national government of the conduct of local authorities if they speak ill of or undermine the role of another member or clerk that is observing and carrying out their democratic duties. The Jackie Weaver viral video shows that we mustn’t treat council debates to any other work place behaviour as what was seen sets a negative precedent of what can occur at local councils and would distract from the functional role of local authorities to act in manners they are elected to do. It raises questions whether if they are handled in means they should.
Watching the misconduct of the members in the meeting flagged if this was shared by someone watching clips on YouTube and sharing it as amusement on Twitter leading to the defence of Jackie Weaver. Why aren’t our local councillors getting adequate scrutiny? The acts of misconduct shows that with having a media centrally focused on more pressing affairs of political and cultural topics in focused more on what’s happening in metropolitan cities and the politics in Westminster politics shows how we forgotten the politics in the small towns and rural villages. Investment in local media, print media, radio and television have declined in the era of social media becoming the primary source of news for many citizens are like to see national and international news popping up in their newsfeed than what is happening in their area this is at a detriment to local democracy and local politics. People should have something more than a Facebook group from their village and town as an easy to sort port of reliable and transparent information on varying local affairs topics and issues that residents in that area should wish to know.
Local politics in a liberal democracy must be transparent recordings of sessions and the order of what has been debated must be available to the public to attain from government and local council webpages. People should also be able to find updates of local politics in shows on local and community radio in news bulletin and specialist topical shows with podcasts for local news wider investment in local democracy reporters and independent local start up media and news journalism politics for better scrutiny and an enhancement of freedom of the press and free media such reports should be available in easy to read means accessible to all and transcripts on websites for more accessible local democracy and news reporting.
We talk at the moment of building back better after the coronavirus pandemic this can only be done effectively if do it from a grassroots level that values the importance of local politics and regional powers that need to be enhanced to better manage responses to local crisis and local infrastructure and public services this comes with further devolved powers and creating a federalist United Kingdom that allows people a more direct and more tangible connection and reach to decisions that affect them after all devolving further powers can aid to improve public services and help with bargaining with national government work to prevent a new era of austerity. However for matters to improve in the toxicity that some people working in local politics would seen to experienced in other work places as unethical and discriminatory need to be investigated to recommend actions that can ensure we can reform to turn down the heat in parish council debate and further scrutinise the work of councillors so beyond local elections and councillors communications can attain an impartial transparent insight of what is going on in their local debating chamber
