A bombshell standards report has dethroned one of the most popular politicians of our age, and for once it’s not a defenestrating at the hands of Sue Gray. Jackie Weaver, the council official who came to fame in 2021 when a virtual parish council meeting became overheated, was lauded as the greatest female political figure since Mrs T herself. However analyses of the standing orders in fact reveals she was acting 

It turns out the very shouty councillor who told Weaver she did not “have the authority” to mute and virtually eject councillors was, according to six separate reports by Cheshire East Council, the person in the right. One of the reports found that Weaver “was not acting in an official capacity at these meetings”:

“Faced with what were unusual and difficult circumstances, and the deep-seated issues underpinning those circumstances, we can understand why Jackie Weaver acted as she did, despite her action being without any formal footing in terms of appropriate process and procedure.”

The cost of the 145-page report totalled £85,000, making it one of the most expensive parish council meetings in British history. It turns out Jackie should have read the standing orders after all. Read them and understood them…