Yesterday, a small civil parish town in Cheshire – just half an hour from Manchester – became the focus of unprecedented viral fame and proved that grassroots British democracy is alive and well in northwest England.
Tens of millions of people have now watched footage of Handforth Parish Council’s planning and environment committee meeting as it descended into chaos.
Just 24 hours ago, ‘Jackie Weaver’ and ‘Aled’s iPad’ were merely words that meant nothing, now, they are global internet stars – and it’s all thanks to one 17-year-old from East London of all places.
i’ve never missed in person meetings more than i did watching this parish council meeting descend into chaos pic.twitter.com/I75zi1fIK5
To summarise the content, what started as your typical, run-of-the-mill Zoom call between several members of Handforth Parish Council in Wilmslow, quickly descended into what can only be described as absolute chaos, with swearing councillors trading insults left, right and centre.
With the tension between councillors continuing to build and plenty of passive aggression having been traded in the lead up, the meeting eventually culminated with the Handforth Parish Council Clerk himself being booted off the call entirely by none other than now-extremely-famous Jackie Weaver.
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“You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver”.
Those were the Clerk’s famous last words before Jackie Weaver exercised the authority she actually did have, and removed him from the meeting.
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And it all went rapidly downhill from there.
But how did it all start? Why and how did it end up online? We need answers, and thanks to the BBC, we have a few already.
Speaking to Radio 1 Newsbeat, 17-year-old Shaan Ali, who found the original clip on YouTube and sent it viral on Twitter, said: “I had like 200 new Twitter followers – it was crazy. Piers Morgan, Richard Osman and some great drag queens had sub-tweeted it.”
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He continues: “I then woke up today to Greg James mentioning it on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and I was like ‘ahh this is amazing'”.
According to the BBC, Shaan is studying politics as part of his A-Levels and has got quite into watching local council meetings in his spare time – which are usually quite dull.
“I guess I’m just fascinated by what local authorities do and the role they play up and down the country,” he says.
"I was once booted off a Parish Council Zoom meeting by Jackie Weaver, for telling her she had no authority". pic.twitter.com/WpIAPNcxIG
“You have big borough councils and county councils, but it’s the parish councils who directly work with communities and it’s so fascinating because [they argue] over the smallest issues.”
He says that there is always “hilarious stuff” going on in these meetings.
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“You know, old men struggling to use Zoom, fun arguments – there’s always something fascinating going on.”
“You have to have a lot of determination – as you see in that video, Jackie had to deal with everyone and it’s not an easy job – I don’t think I could handle it!”
Manchester’s Club de Padel claps back at ’embarrassing’ copycat ASOS product
Daisy Jackson
A local Manchester business has sarcastically pointed out the glaring similarities between a new t-shirt on ASOS and one of its own designs.
Club de Padel has a range of retro-inspired merch with UN:IK, a small independent streetwear brand also based here in Manchester.
Its collection of t-shirts, hoodies, tracksuits, hats and bags often feature a design of an illustrated padel ball (which to the untrained eye is basically a tennis ball) in motion.
But this week a t-shirt appeared on ASOS that also featured an illustrated padel ball in motion, just in a slightly different colour palette.
The ASOS version, which has now been removed from sale, also undercut Club de Padel’s price by £6.
Since Club de Padel took the ’embarrassing’ copycat product public on their Instagram page, ASOS has launched an investigation and taken it off their website.
The sports venture, based at Deansgate Square and the only padel club in Manchester, wrote: “Love the new designs ASOS, kinda reminds us of something though…
The ASOS t-shirt that Club de Padel has said copies their merch. Credit: ASOSClub de Padel’s t-shirt created by Manchester brand UN:IK. Credit: Club de Padel
“Ah. Well that’s embarrassing… We’ve got a new line coming soon with UN:IK Clothing you’re just gonna love ASOS.
“In the meantime we made this for you @asos, save your design team a job.”
An ASOS spokesperson said: “We take intellectual property issues very seriously and have removed this product from sale while we investigate further.”
Of the Club de Padel and UN:IK collaboration, aka the real deal, UN:IK says it has ‘served up a staple for us, retro inspired leisure pieces with Manchester’s first ever padel club’.
Club de Padel in Manchester has gone public to poke fun at ASOS
They wrote: “Inspired by owners after a trip to Spain, Club de Padel has hit the city with a wave and the lifestyle brand we have created with them reinforces the fastest growing sport across Europe.
“Our classic vintage washes and oversized fits, working with independent designs as always on this local independent partnership. Don’t be afraid to the sport, we’ll guarantee you love it as much as these clothes.”
Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data
Danny Jones
The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.
It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.
This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.
At the end of the day, tea has got to be the most important of all office supplies, surely?
According to the stats, Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s favourite brand of tea bags. (Credit: Yorkshire Tea)
Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.
With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.
The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.
In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:
Rank
Tea
Average UK monthly searches
1
Yorkshire Tea
27,100
2
PG Tips
18,100
3
Pukka Tea
14,800
4
Twinings
12,100
5
Teapigs
8,100
6
Whittards Tea
6,600
7
Tetley
4,400
8
Clipper Tea
4,400
9
Lipton Tea
3,600
10
Barrys Tea
3,600
11
Thompsons Tea
1,300
12
Typhoo
1,300
13
Taylors Tea
1,300
14
M&S Tea
1,300
15
Tesco Tea
1,000
16
Tick Tock Tea
880
17
Sainsbury’s Tea
720
18
Lyons Tea
720
19
Asda Tea
590
20
Aldi Tea
590
21
Waitrose Tea
590
22
Lidl Tea
480
23
Morrisons Tea
320
24
Bewleys Tea
90
25
Cafedirect Tea
40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?
While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?
As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencer’s teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.
Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.
“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…
The Manc -
6th February 2021 
