Tag: Politics

• More utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘Good lord, these people are clearly morons.’ MADE UP QUOTE

MEETING DATE: FRIDAY 20 MARCH 2020

THE ACTING CHAIR convened the meeting at 7.30 pm.

Item 1

Cyril Keenly, the Clerk of the Parish Council, dialled into the meeting because he was self-isolating. Councillor Watterson asked if anyone else was self-isolating because there was just him and the Acting Chair in the Council Room.

The Clerk confirmed everyone else was self-isolating though Councillor Pritchard didn’t really count because he was still in a coma after someone had attacked him with a pick-axe, Councillors Dean and Tomkins didn’t count because they were on trial for murder after the dismembered bodies of their ex-spouses were found at the Cow and Banjo and the Chairman didn’t count because he’d been photographed doing something ‘right dodgy’ and quite possibly illegal, forcing him to resign in disgrace.

The Clerk said Councillor Martin wasn’t able to attend the meeting because of a prior engagement with the Russian Mafia.

Item 2

Councillor Boothby, Acting Chair, asked Councillor Andrews if he could switch off his webcam. While Skype enabled Councillors to run meetings during the current pandemic with public gatherings restricted, this didn’t mean it was appropriate for Councillor Andrews to attend meetings sat on the porcelain. Councillor Andrews apologised and switched off his video feed. He also muted the audio, but not before everyone heard a tiny plop.

Councillor Boothby said the Parish Council needed to show real leadership during the public health crisis and should encourage social distancing.

Councillor Lathers said she’d practiced social distancing for years, mainly from her ex-husband, estate agents and people who read The Daily Mail. Councillor Watterson said that with supermarket shelves now cleared of loo roll because of panic buying, he’d found The Daily Mail to be soft, strong and very, very long. Councillor Andrews, switching his audio back on, said he’d heard rumours that The Sun was actually softer if you were a folder and not a scruncher. He’d also heard The Daily Telegraph was more absorbent, with a quilted edition on Sundays. He muted his audio again, but not before everyone heard a soft groan and splash.

Councillor Lathers said she’d touched a copy of The News of the World once and had to self-isolate for fourteen days.

Item 3

Councillor Gooding said this whole thing with the pandemic was just scaremongering and that Britain had survived the Blitz. Councillor Boothby said she was no expert, but understood you couldn’t generally catch the Blitz by somebody coughing next to you on a bus. You also couldn’t catch the Blitz by walking round in large crowds in deliberate ignorance of advice from qualified health experts that people should stay at home as an entirely sensible precaution to minimise the risk of infecting the elderly and those already in poor health.

Councillor Watterson added that he was no expert either, but understood that comparing the pandemic to something that happened in World War II was at best naïve jingoism and at worst the intellectual reasoning of reckless simpletons.

Councillor Gooding said that British people were made of stronger stuff and even though he’d caught the virus at a darts match in the pub last Wednesday and had since gone to three concerts, nine supermarkets, two schools and a hospital, it would all turn out for the best if everyone just thought more positively, and believed harder, and Got Virus Done. At this point he coughed loudly and his line went dead.

Item 4

Councillor Boothby said it would be a truly beautiful thing for the people of Shufflehampton to set aside their longstanding and ultimately meaningless differences during this crisis to do all they could to work together for the sake of the most desperate and disadvantaged. Already Councillor Boothby had seen many inspiring examples of selflessness and love in the community which, in their compassionate simplicity, had done much to restore her ailing faith in the precious, innate beauty of humanity. In desperate times, she mused, it was astounding how distance could bring people together when proximity so often tore them apart. It was the ultimate paradox.

Councillor Watterson said they’d run out of Ultimate Paradox in the chemists but he’d got twenty boxes of Lemsip and what was left of the hand sanitizer.

Councillor Boothby hoofed Councillor Watterson in the cobblers.

Item 5

The Acting Chair asked if there was any other business. Councillor Andrews, switching his audio back on, said he didn’t know but he’d keep at it for a bit.

He muted his audio again, but not before everyone heard his wife come in.

The meeting ended at 8.01 pm, with absolutely no pasta anywhere.

copyright (c) carterbloke 2020

Minutes of previous meetings

• Meeting #1 | Meeting #2 | Meeting #3 | Meeting #4 | Meeting #5 | Meeting #6 | Meeting #7 | Meeting #8 | Meeting #9

Photo credits

• Toilet paper c/o pixabay.com

• More utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘If democracy wasn’t already dead, it would be dead now.’ MADE UP QUOTE

MEETING DATE: FRIDAY 23 JULY 2019

THE CHAIRMAN convened the meeting at 7.30 pm.

Item 1

Cyril Keenly, the Clerk of the Parish Council, confirmed that the minutes of the last meeting were to be amended to show Councillor Pritchard not being brutally slain with a pick-axe. While Councillor Pritchard had seemed dead when he’d been found in the hallway, it later emerged he’d only been seriously injured when he woke up suddenly in the morgue, making the cleaner do a big poo in his undercrackers.

Councillor Lathers said she’d been denied entry to the hospital ward by armed police but had learned that Councillor Pritchard had fallen into a coma, stopping him from spilling all he knew about the bodies recently found under the Cow and Banjo and also from coming to meetings for a bit.

Councillor Martin said all this silly nonsense could be sorted out discreetly and professionally through her contacts in the Russian mafia, and would anyone like a coconut macaroon.

Item 2

As per the new procedure, the Chairman asked Councillors to declare any murders.

It was noted that no Councillors had murdered anyone since the last meeting. No Councillors had tried to murder Councillor Pritchard either because they all had perfectly plausible alibis, and anyone who thought any different could jog on, quite frankly.

Councillor Boothby said she was concerned about the reputational damage all this was causing the Parish Council but was glad there was nothing else anyone knew about which could make matters worse.

Councillor Watterson said not so fast, baby cakes.

Item 3

Councillor Watterson said the recent ladies’ night hosted by Shufflehampton Women’s Institute at the village hall had descended into debauchery. As was the case with a similar event at the Cow and Banjo, food and drinks were served at tables to sozzled guests by half naked waiters, causing innocent people to be hurt and / or lightly fondled in the process.

Councillor Boothby said her son Brian hadn’t been one of the waiters this time because he was still being treated for the severe burns he’d received last time from that red-hot sausage plait. This had been so traumatic it had put Brian off any future career in catering, semi-clothed or otherwise, and even now he couldn’t walk past the hot pastry counter at Greggs without getting unpleasant, involuntary twinges. Often, he’d wake up screaming in the night with a recurring nightmare about being chased down a corridor by a giant, freshly baked steak and ale slice with hot coals for eyes, laughing at him.

Laughing.

Councillor Martin said the involuntary twinges she’d had at the ladies’ night hadn’t been unpleasant at all and she’d not had feelings like these since that holiday fling with Enrique in Marbella in 1978.

Councillor Watterson said he’d seen photos on Twitter of Councillor Lathers canoodling in a hedge with a young male model and Councillor Martin hoisting a pair of enormous frilly knickers up a flagpole. Councillor Watterson said several Parish Councillors were setting an appalling example to the community and it was high time they were removed from office.

Councillor Gooding agreed, showing Councillor Watterson a photo on his mobile of Councillor Watterson at a karaoke party, standing in a bowl of warm custard, drunkenly singing Barry Manilow’s Copacabana with a colourful peacock feather sticking out of his sequined hot pants. At this point Councillor Watterson stopped speaking.

The Chairman asked if anyone had any dirt on him. Councillor Gooding passed the Chairman his mobile to look at some other photos, and the Chairman immediately resigned.

Councillor Martin said all it would take was one phone call, and Sergei and Anatoly could make all these problems go away. One phone call.

Item 4

Councillor Boothby assumed leadership of the meeting as Vice Chair. She said that in the circumstances it was probably best to end this meeting and reconvene another time. Those Councillors who hadn’t already left the meeting in shame, embarrassment or disgust agreed with Councillor Boothby, and then left the meeting in shame, embarrassment or disgust.

Item 5

Under ‘Any Other Business’, there was no other business because there was no-one left, to be fair.

The meeting ended at 8.01 pm, with Councillor Martin making a phone call.

copyright (c) carterbloke 2019

Minutes of previous meetings

• Meeting #1 | Meeting #2 | Meeting #3 | Meeting #4 | Meeting #5 | Meeting #6 | Meeting #7

Photo credits

• Gangsters c/o pixabay.com
• Man in pain c/o pxhere.com

 

• More utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘My mum was on the Council, and she was a total headcase.’ MADE UP QUOTE

MEETING DATE: FRIDAY 28 JUNE 2019

THE CHAIRMAN convened the meeting at 7.30 pm.

Item 1

Cyril Keenly, the Clerk of the Parish Council, confirmed that Councillors Dean and Tomkins were suspended from the Council pending police investigation after two dead bodies were found under the floorboards at the Cow and Banjo.

Councillor Pritchard said there was no way Councillors Dean and Tomkins had brutally murdered their spouses back in 2014, buried them under the cricket pavilion and then moved the remains to a shallow grave under the pub to prevent these being found when the pavilion was knocked down for redevelopment.

The Chairman said Councillor Pritchard’s comments were interesting because none of this had been publicly reported and the bodies hadn’t been identified yet.

Councillor Pritchard suddenly seemed worried and said he needed to make a phone call, leaving the room very quickly.

Item 2

The Chairman welcomed newly-elected Councillors Gooding and Martin to the meeting. Councillor Gooding said he was looking forward to making a real difference to the people of Shufflehampton. Councillor Martin asked if this was the meeting of the Women’s Institute because she’d baked a lovely pavlova.

Item 3

The Chairman asked Councillors to declare any interests. Councillor Watterson said shouldn’t Councillors declare any murders first.

The Chairman said it was unusual for murders to be declared at a Parish Council meeting. Councillor Watterson said it was unusual for murderers to be on a Parish Council. Councillor Boothby said it was unusual for someone to think it was unusual for murderers to be on a Parish Council.

The Chairman said he didn’t want to ask Councillors to declare murders every month. Councillor Watterson said so why not declare murders quarterly.

The Clerk said this was tricky because any murders committed by Councillors in July might only be declared in September meaning the police wouldn’t know anything about them for three months. Councillor Watterson said perhaps one way around this would be for Councillors to tell the police about any murders straight away, but only declare them to the Council on a quarterly return.

Councillor Watterson asked that if Councillors had just seriously injured someone but they hadn’t died yet was there a requirement to also declare maiming.

The Chairman, gently rocking, said that he ‘gave up, he chuffing well gave up.’

Item 4

In a change to the agenda, the Chairman asked Councillors to declare any murders. No murders were declared, though two possible murders were noted as pending at the pub.

The Chairman asked Councillors to declare any interests. All Councillors declared an interest in the two possible murders.

The Chairman thanked the Council for its valuable input.

Councillor Martin declared a pavlova.

Item 5

Councillor Boothby confirmed that the Village Fete would be opened by Tom Hardy, a part-time children’s magician from Tunbridge Wells, because the famous actor Tom Hardy had pulled out due to a TV interview with Graham Norton or something.

Councillor Lathers said this was disappointing because the village had been looking forward to a celebrity opening the fete, and even if the part-time magician was an absolute genius he still wasn’t the dreamy bloke off the movies who she and her friends really fancied and would be very keen to smother in jam and lightly tickle just to start things off. Councillor Martin said if there was an invitation going spare, she’d happily bring along the jam and also a pavlova.

Councillor Boothby said that if an update on the Village Fete had to be recorded in the minutes, maybe it could be buried in bad news somewhere.

The Clerk said did Councillor Boothby mean ‘bad news’ as in Councillors maybe having killed some people under item 1.

Councillor Boothby said yes.

The Clerk said righto.

Item 6

Under ‘Any Other Business’, the dead body of Councillor Pritchard was found in the hallway outside the meeting room next to a bloodstained pick-axe.

The Clerk updated the Declaration of Murders register. Councillor Martin handed round paper plates and napkins.

The meeting ended at 8.01 pm, with police cars and a number of arrests.

copyright (c) carterbloke 2019

Minutes of previous meetings

• Meeting #1 | Meeting #2 | Meeting #3 | Meeting #4 | Meeting #5 | Meeting #6

Photo credits

• Crime scene c/o pexels.com
• Murderer c/o pixabay.com

• More utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘I moan about them lots on Facebook, but never turn up to vote.’ MADE UP QUOTE

MEETING DATE: FRIDAY 24 MAY 2019

THE CHAIRMAN convened the meeting at 7.30 pm.

Item 1

Cyril Keenly, the Clerk of the Parish Council, reminded Councillors that official email addresses were only for Council business and not for personal use. Councillor Dean asked if ‘personal use’ included buying exotic underclothing off the internet. The Chairman said not if the underclothing was for official business. Councillor Dean said this was fine, he only wore it to meetings.

The Chairman asked the Clerk not to record what Councillor Dean just said in the minutes. The Clerk said yes, he could keep a secret. Councillor Watterson said no, the Clerk couldn’t keep a secret because he often revealed spoilers about films which Councillor Watterson hadn’t got around to seeing yet. The Clerk apologised for this, and Iron Man died in Avengers: Endgame.

Item 2

Councillor Lathers said she’d received several complaints about plagues of slugs in the village allotments. Councillor Boothby said there were lots of slugs at this time of year but they pretty much exploded when you poured salt on them. Councillor Dean asked did they actually explode, or was this just an exaggeration. Councillor Boothby said she didn’t think a protective vest was needed when you poured salt on a slug so there was no need for alarm. Councillor Dean said what about some kind of robot sniffer dog, just in case.

Councillor Tomkins said if slugs exploded, you’d have to be careful on an aeroplane in case hijackers strapped slugs to themselves and threatened to add table salt if the FBI didn’t give in to their demands. She thought that one way of combating this might be to ban taking salt onto aeroplanes, like they do with deodorant and possibly toothpaste these days.

Councillor Dean said all this was very well but what if hijackers just smuggled the salt onto the plane disguised as icing sugar, or crack cocaine. Councillor Tomkins said this was a good point, and actually it was probably harder to disguise slugs, so maybe it was slugs that should be banned from aeroplanes and not salt. Councillor Pritchard said it was easy to disguise a slug by putting a shell on it and calling it a snail.

Councillor Boothby said there was no way you could smuggle crack cocaine onto an aeroplane, but based on current discussions it was obviously very easy to smuggle it into a council meeting.

The Chairman thanked everyone for their valuable input. Changing the subject, he said he wanted to book a speaker for a Council function next month and did anyone object to David Cameron, former Prime Minister and MP for Witney. Councillor Lathers said hadn’t she been in The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner.

Item 3

Councillor Morgan excused himself from the meeting, once again realising he was a Parish Councillor in a different village and had come to this meeting by mistake.

Item 4

The Chairman asked for an update on Village Fete plans. Councillor Boothby said that while Tom Hardy was free to open the event, this wasn’t the actor Tom Hardy because she’d sent her tweet by mistake to Tom Hardy the painter and decorator from Tunbridge Wells, and not the actor Tom Hardy from the Mad Max films.

Councillor Boothby said she’d now sent a tweet to the correct Tom Hardy (the famous one) and told Tunbridge Wells Tom Hardy (the not-so-famous one) that his services were no longer needed because no-one had heard of him and why would anyone book a painter and decorator from Tunbridge Wells to open the Village Fete, for pity’s sake.

Tunbridge Wells Tom Hardy had said bear him in mind anyway, because he did a children’s magic act on the side and was DBS-cleared. He also did something very imaginative with a rabbit.

Item 5

Under ‘Any Other Business’, the Chairman said he’d just been told by the police that the bodies of two people had been found under the floorboards of the function room at the Cow and Banjo.

The meeting ended at 8.01 pm, when Black Widow also died in Avengers: Endgame.

copyright (c) carterbloke 2019

Minutes of previous meetings

• Meeting #1 | Meeting #2 | Meeting #3 | Meeting #4 | Meeting #5

Photo credits

• Iron Man c/o pxhere.com
• Murderer c/o pixabay.com

• More utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘You really couldn’t make this up.’ MADE UP QUOTE

MEETING DATE: FRIDAY 29 MARCH 2019

THE CHAIRMAN convened the meeting of the Twinning Sub-Committee at 7.30 pm.

Item 1

Cyril Keenly, the Secretary of the Sub-Committee, confirmed that Shufflehampton was to be twinned with Kurtlich zum Bummen in Bavaria, Germany.

The Chairman offered to show the Sub-Committee a letter from the town’s Burgermeister. Councillor Watterson said he preferred KFC. The Chairman explained that ‘Burgermeister’ was the German word for ‘Mayor’ and wasn’t a popular fast food chain. Councillor Watterson said he usually went for the Zinger Tower.

Item 2

Councillor Dean said he was worried because ‘Kurtlich zum Bummen’ sounded like a really dirty instruction you could give to someone called Kurt.

Councillor Pritchard said there was no-one called Kurt living in Shufflehampton, so no risk of someone called Kurt being upset by the words ‘Kurtlich zum Bummen’ or taking them as an instruction to do something dirty.

Councillor Dean said it wasn’t really the ‘Kurt’ part he was worried about so much as the ‘lich zum Bummen’ part, which might make villagers complain, or giggle.

Councillor Watterson said hang on, weren’t there lots of people in Germany called Kurt who might already be upset by the words ‘Kurtlich zum Bummen’ and did the Germans get any complaints and could the Sub-Committee get the advice of Germany. Councillor Boothby said it would be difficult to get the advice of the whole of Germany because some of it might be on holiday at the moment.

Councillor Lathers said none of this was necessary because in Germany, ‘Kurtlich zum Bummen’ was simply the name of a Bavarian town and wasn’t taken to mean: ‘Kurt, lick these buttocks,’ which was totally a puerile English thing.

Councillor Boothby said perhaps it would be best to find a different twin town, or persuade Kurtlich zum Bummen to change its name to something less rude. Councillor Pritchard said he’d once visited a place in Scotland called Twatt.

The Chairman thanked the Sub-Committee for its valuable input.

Item 3

Councillor Watterson said he was really excited about visiting the new twin town because he’d never met anyone who looked identical to himself before.

The Chairman suggested that Councillor Watterson may have misunderstood the idea of ‘twin town’ at a conceptual level.

Councillor Watterson said he was still looking forward to grabbing a bite to eat with his doppelganger.

The Chairman explained that ‘twin town’ didn’t mean a town full of people who looked exactly the same as all of the people in another town, for pity’s sake.

Councillor Watterson said it was perfectly reasonable to assume this was what ‘twin town’ meant because identical people could be found everywhere and he knew someone called Pedro who’d just moved to Shufflehampton from Guadalajara who looked just like him. Councillor Lathers said this was clearly cobblers, and that Councillor Watterson was just trying to save face and not look like a place in Scotland Councillor Pritchard said he’d once visited.

Councillor Watterson excused himself from the meeting. Councillor Pritchard said he’d also driven through a place in Essex called Fingringhoe.

Item 4

Councillor Tomkins said that if the mayor of Kurtlich zum Bummen was available, couldn’t he open the Village Fete. Councillor Boothby said no, the actor Tom Hardy had now confirmed he would do this.

Item 5

Before Councillor Boothby could continue, Councillor Watterson re-entered the room wearing a sombrero, fake moustache and a poncho, grinning manically. The Chairman asked Councillor Watterson what he was doing, to which Councillor Watterson replied: ‘Me eez not the Councillor, hombre! Me eez Pedro from Guadalajara. Ole!’

Despite many attempts to reason with him, Councillor Watterson did not break character. He was gently escorted from the premises and put into a taxi.

The meeting ended at 8.01 pm, with the shaking of maracas.

copyright (c) carterbloke 2019

Minutes of previous meetings

• Meeting #1 | Meeting #2 | Meeting #3 | Meeting #4

Photo credits

• Lederhose c/o pixabay.com
• Mexican outfit c/o Wikimedia Commons.

• More utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘Still better organised than my garage.’ MADE UP QUOTE

MEETING DATE: TUESDAY 19 MARCH 2019

THE CHAIRMAN convened the meeting at 7.30 pm.

Item 1

Cyril Keenly, the Clerk of the Parish Council, said official email addresses had been set up for Councillors and these should now be used for all business correspondence. Councillor Watterson said he was worried about spam, and getting emails about pills to ‘help a chap out in the bedroom.’

Councillor Boothby said she knew some of these pills were expensive and had told her Lazlo not to get any more until the price of Viagra falls.

Councillor Dean said he’d gone on holiday to Viagra Falls with his wife.

Councillor Pritchard said he was also worried about spam, because of his allergy to processed pork.

Item 2

The Chairman welcomed Councillor Lathers to the meeting following her absence at the last two meetings due to severe migraines which lawyers had now formally confirmed were unlikely to have been caused by the head injuries sustained by Councillor Lathers from the heavy stapler thrown at her by Councillor Boothby at the last meeting Councillor Lathers had been to.

Councillor Watterson said if you wrote all that down in the minutes it would be a very long sentence.

Councillor Boothby said someone else she knew had just got a very long sentence.

The Chairman said his son Gary was very sorry about that.

Councillor Lathers said she and Councillor Boothby had agreed to put aside their differences, now that she’d put aside Councillor Boothby’s husband. Both Councillors said they just wanted to work together for the good of Shufflehampton and the wider community. The Council applauded them, suspiciously.

Item 3

Councillor Lathers said she’d complained about the recent ladies’ night at the Cow and Banjo. On hearing that attractive male waiters were serving food at tables half naked, she’d assumed it would be the top halves which were naked. This had not been the case, and now she couldn’t look at a sausage plait in quite the same way.

Councillor Boothby said she’d also complained about the ladies’ night after driving her 19-year-old son Brian, a professional male model, to A and E to be treated for pastry burns to his tallywhacker.

The Chairman stated that colleagues should not have attended this sordid event because the Council’s reputation was already crumbling. ‘A bit like the sausage plait,’ said Councillor Lathers.

Councillor Tomkins said she thought everyone was taking this far too seriously and perhaps, in this case, laughter was the best medicine. Councillor Boothby said not for the pastry burns, because this was Savlon.

Councillor Watterson said he quite liked going to the Cow and Banjo. The pub had started a weekly Scrabble club which meant he no longer needed to play with himself.

Item 4

Councillor Dean once again reminded colleagues that with elections on the way it was important to safeguard the Parish Council’s reputation even though everyone knew where the bodies were buried. Councillor Tomkins said yes, these were no longer in the shallow grave under the cricket pavilion.

Councillor Dean confirmed he’d been using a metaphor again and everyone relaxed, apart from Councillor Tomkins.

Item 5

Under ‘Any Other Business’, the Council agreed to support the planning application to build new houses on the land currently occupied by Shufflehampton Cricket Club. Councillor Dean, a longstanding critic of the plans, confirmed he no longer saw any reason why the development could not go ahead.

The meeting ended at 8.01 pm with yummy flapjacks.

copyright (c) carterbloke 2019

Minutes of previous meetings

• Meeting #1 | Meeting #2 | Meeting #3

Photo credits

The following photo used under Creative Commons licence.

• Spam c/o Mike Mozart

Other photo:

• Man in pain c/o  pxhere.com

• More utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘A shabby attempt to discredit my dad.’ MADE UP QUOTE

MEETING DATE: THURSDAY 7 MARCH 2019

THE CHAIRMAN convened the meeting at 7.30 pm.

Item 1

Cyril Keenly, the Clerk of the Parish Council, said he’d stopped adding silly words into the minutes to check if Parish Councillors were reading them. He said he’d thought about replacing some of the words with rhyming words but the Chairman had told him not to do this or he’d go back to cleaning the toilets at Shufflehampton Pleasure Centre.

Item 2

Councillor Watterson apologised for not being present at the meeting. He was physically present, but had his mind on other things so wouldn’t be listening.

Item 3

The Council sent its good wishes to Councillor Lathers for a speedy recovery following her admission to hospital for treatment for head injuries sustained in a fight with Councillor Boothby at a previous Council meeting.

The Chairman said he’d received a letter from the firm of solicitors acting for Councillor Lathers and it looked like this was going to get very messy. Councillor Boothby said that Lathers should just have kept her mitts off her Lazlo, the brazen drab.

The Chairman asked the Clerk not to record anything to do with this in the minutes, at all, under any circumstances, and the Clerk agreed.

Item 4

Councillor Boothby said that as suggested at the last meeting she’d asked the actor Tom Hardy to open the Village Fete. She suspected his current commitments to the Mad Max movie franchise were why he’d not responded to her tweet yet, and promised to keep the Chairman informed.

Councillor Dean said why not ask the charming Rachel Riley from Countdown to open the fete instead because, as far as he was aware, she wasn’t in any Mad Max films. Councillor Pritchard said this was a good idea and someone should approach Rachel Riley, but not him obviously, because of that restraining order.

Councillor Tomkins said she’d be happy to approach Rachel Riley but if she did agree to open the fete Councillor Pritchard’s restraining order would stop him from coming and who else would judge Shufflehampton’s Firmest Marrow. Councillor Pritchard said maybe he could just borrow a small tent and hide in it if Rachel walked past.

Councillor Boothby said Councillor Pritchard was a deeply unpleasant and creepy man who needed help. Councillor Dean said that if Councillor Pritchard needed help, he had a tent.

Item 5

Councillor Boothby complained that sexism was obviously rife in the Council. Councillor Dean said this was double standards because how was it okay for Councillor Boothby to openly simper at the prospect of buff young Tom Hardy sampling her prize-winning dumpsy dearie, and not okay for them to hold a torch for Rachel off Countdown. Boothby said this was different, because with her and Tom Hardy, there was no restraining order. Councillor Pritchard said not for the time being anyway. There was a cracking sound, and he cried out in agony.

Councillor Tomkins said that whoever opened the fete, the Council should avoid false advertising. For example, she’d taken two pounds of fresh raspberries, some caster sugar and some lemon juice to the function room at the Cow and Banjo last night, only to be told by the hairy man playing the drums it wasn’t that kind of jam session.

The meeting ended at 8.01 pm, when the ambulance turned up.

copyright (c) carterbloke 2019

Minutes of previous meetings

• Meeting #1 | Meeting #2

Photo credits

• Rachel Riley c/o Wikimedia Commons.

• An occasional series of utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘A frankly shocking indictment of institutionalised malpractice and ineptitude.’ MADE UP QUOTE

MEETING DATE: Thursday 28 February 2019

THE CHAIRMAN convened the meeting at 7.30 pm.

Item 1

Cyril Keenly, the Clerk of the Parish Council, noted that all Councillors were present apart from Councillor Lathers who had a migraine. The Council sent its good wishes to Councillor Lathers for a speedy recovery, apart from Councillor Boothby who’d thrown the stapler at Councillor Lathers causing the migraines.

Councillor Tomkins said that when she’d had migraines she’d got help from a complementary therapist. Councillor Boothby said her therapist hadn’t been very complimentary when she’d accused him of trying to give her a big snog.

The Chairman said his son Gary was very sorry about that.

Item 2

Councillor Pritchard sent his apologies, not for failing to attend the meeting (because he was at the meeting), but because of his poor self-awareness and casual xenophobia. He wasn’t proud of these things, but was now too set in his ways to try to view the world any differently and perfectly content for younger generations to bear the consequences of his ill-conceived and inherently selfish decisions.

Councillor Morgan seconded this, even though it didn’t need seconding.

Item 3

The Chairman said he’d seen some embarrassing mistakes in official documents and asked if the Clerk used spell check. The Clerk said he did, but that spell check wouldn’t pick up any instance of an intended word being replaced by a similarly spelled word where that similarly spelled word was a legitimate English word and was correctly spelled. The Chairman said all this was fine, he just didn’t want anyone looking silly ahead of the forthcoming Council erections.

Councillor Dean said Councillors should present a united front in public even though they all knew where the bodies were buried. Councillor Tomkins said yes, in the shallow grave under the cricket pavilion.

Councillor Dean confirmed he’d been using a metaphor and everyone relaxed, apart from Councillor Tomkins.

Item 4

The Councillors were asked to declare any interests. Councillor Boothby said the actor Tom Hardy. The Chairman said this wasn’t what ‘declaring interests’ usually meant, but that his wife agreed with Councillor Boothby about Tom Hardy, particularly since Mad Max: Fury Road.

Councillor Dean said Tom Hardy was a credit to the acting profession and couldn’t the Council give him an opportunity to open the Village Fete. Councillor Boothby said she’d be very happy to give him one.

Councillor Watterson said why couldn’t the Village Fete sponsor the latest Bob Geldof charity project as advertised at the local Tesco. Councillor Tomkins said she’d check, but was sure that ‘Dishwasher Rinse Aid’ was a detergent product and not a fundraiser.

Councillor Morgan seconded this, even though it didn’t need seconding.

Item 5

Councillor Morgan left the meeting, realising he was a Parish Councillor in another village and had come to this meeting by mistake.

Under ‘Any Other Business’, the Chairman asked the Clerk if he had ceased his irritating practice of adding silly words into the minutes to check if any of the Councillors had read them. The Clerk said he had.

The meeting ended at 8.01 pm hubba hubba yum yum.

copyright (c) carterbloke 2019

Minutes of previous meetings

• Meeting #1

Photo credits

• Tom Hardy c/o Wikimedia Commons.