The show began as satire. The first five minutes were spent discovering that the priest who’d led prayers was on mute. A great opening scene for, ‘Bumbling Councillors Meet Zoom.’ The mute gag was terrific and occurred repeatedly. Each time it was used everyone seemed genuinely surprised, which added to the joy of it. ‘Are we on mute?’ a truly great catch phrase.
Casting is all important for a show. This show needed a cartoon villain, a well-meaning elderly gent, a pompous young big-head, a council officer who wanted to be somewhere else and a strong group of walk-on parts. Casting did a magnificent job.
The mute gag degenerated into farce. Spending 25 minutes discussing, ‘How to vote!’ tested the patience of the audience. Severe editing was needed. Satire transformed into farce. Those who remained in the audience and loved farce, sensed magic in the air and hung on. They were richly rewarded.
A well choreographed conflict between, ‘Cartoon Villain’ and ‘Pompous Young Big-head’ didn’t disappoint. There’s nothing like teasing abuse to provoke a Cartoon Villain. Damian White did it with flair and a well practised smirk. Now and then he stoked the flames when it looked as if the gag was flagging.
And the winner was… Damian White! Once again he evaded any accountability.
* For the webcast see https://www.bing.com/search?q=havering+council+meeting+webcast&form=ANSPH1&refig=0343091694f646b287e301508ec75146&sp=1&qs=HS&pq=ha&sk=PRES1&sc=8-2&cvid=0343091694f646b287e301508ec75146
1) The first five minutes are the opening gag, which is sort of fun. Then there is 20 minutes of ‘How do we vote?’ which is fun for those who like train-crash humour.
2) If you fast forward to 1 hour 6 minutes the next 20 minutes reveal why Havering is more-or-less dead politically speaking.
Politics in Havering 
A Benny Hill sketch has more political & practical relevance than the shambolic, chaotic scenes at the full council Zoom meeting.
The new Mayor who was supposed to be chairing the meeting, would look more at home on a trawler or a Birds Eye Fish Finger advert, because, he had not a clue about procedures & how to run a meeting.
Moving on, It’s no wonder the council leader wears glasses, with all his self gratification & pontification on how wonderful his administration is.
I cannot believe the naivety of the IRGs/ independent councillors, firstly agreeing to the make up of the new committees ( Jeff Tucker ) Then disagreeing and placing an amendment to the proposal they had already agreed to.
This was all caused by Jan Sargent leaving the IRGs group, Damien White then dangled a big fat juicy worm & got an instantaneous bite of epic proportions from the IRGs, Tucker boiled over, steam spouting from every orifice & at one point looked like he was going to implode, while White Just sat back smirking, White must have thought This must be my lucky day, get the net out, the big net, I’ve caught the mother load of IRGs, The farce just continued the IRGs looking as if they had all just been caught out on an episode of You’ve Been Framed.
When the vote came to fruition Jan Sargent, the supposed author of all the discombobulation voted with the Tories and the IRGs amendment was defeated. Whilst more entertaining than licking stones of a motorway, there is a very serious side to the dictatorial way the council is being run without due process by the leader Damian White. The IRGs have now shown once again what opposition should not look like, That are Severely lacking the intelligence to understand what is put before them.
When you add the revelations of alleged local Ward Boundary gerrymandering and the Tory shenanigans of this Zoom meeting is democracy dead in Havering.
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Obviously we need more mature councillors who can focus on the actual problems of the borough.
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