The Richard Spooner Column: Perils of public office�
Public service is a funny old thing. You 're either cut out for it or not and I fully admire anyone who takes it on.
Take Jackie Weaver, for instance. She became an internet sensation and an overnight media star after a video of a chaotic planning and environment meeting at Handforth Parish Council in Cheshire was widely shared online.
The sheer Britishness of the whole thing was a delight. Where else in the world could you experience such a thing? French rural politics can be as eccentric as the British version and the only rival to Handforth that I can remember was fiction.
It was a comedy called Clochemerle, a 1972 BBC television serial based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Gabriel Chevallier.
Clochemerle 's mayor, Barthelemey Piechut, and the local council planned for the erection of a “pissoir ” (gentleman 's public convenience) in the village square. Unfortunately, the rest of the rural French village 's inhabitants were not impressed even when M. Piechut organised a wine festival to celebrate the grand opening of the urinal.
Such are the dangers of public office. And, of course, it 's only in this internet age that things like the proceedings of a tiny council in rural England could go viral with global attention. Even a New York newspaper called their London desks asking who 's Jack Weaver.
It made a star of the council 's indomitable clerk, Jackie, who dealt with argumentative male councillors by kicking them off the Zoom call and barely reacting when one of them yelled: “Read the standing orders! Read them and understand them! ”
She was even told by one of them: “You have no authority here Jackie Weaver ”. Within days, T-shirts were being created and Jackie was appearing on BBC 's Woman 's Hour.
What a hoot and Jackie will now be give a talk at Cardiff University, where she will address students as part of their public administration module.
The lecture is on Monday and will examine what happened during the meeting, how she was involved in it and how it all went wrong. It will also focus on the press coverage of local government, the necessity of coverage, and the implications the viral video may have.
And I hope all of these shenanigans don 't put off students from Birmingham 's King Edward 's School from seeking high (or low) political office in the years to come.
A group of eight boys in Year 12 have organised a Political Awareness Week, which will take place from 22 to 26 February. The week of activities, events and presentations is open to any school that would like to get involved.
Speakers during the week include West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street, Labour MP for Edgbaston and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Preet Kaur Gill, and former director of counter-terrorism at the Home Office, Sir Robert Whalley. Talks are on topics including race, identity, gender and sexuality in politics and a virtual Question Time-like debate will include MPs Saqib Bhatti and Preet Gill, Andy Street and Councillor Matt Bennett.
Year 12 pupil Advait Kuravi, who came up with the idea for the week after conducting an independent study of people 's knowledge of politics, said: “I was surprised by how little people know about politics and how young people are less engaged with politics than ever before. Only 58 per cent of 18-24-year-olds voted in the 2017 General Election compared to 78 per cent aged over 24. ”
What a great idea and hope that characters like Jackie Weaver and even Barthelemey Piechut emerge from the ranks of those pupils.
And it 's reassuring to know that political debate is alive and kicking in the English countryside.
It was not always the case. I remember covering an Urban District Council meeting when the political imbalance was so far in favour of the Conservatives and “independent ” councillors that one meeting involving the affairs of a town of almost 30,000 residents took only five minutes to conclude.
Planning issues were rubber-stamped without debate. How they could have done with a Jackie Weaver�